05 Our Covenant Marriage
Paul and Shelby, servants of Jesus Christ, two having become one flesh in the eyes of our King.
To all who call upon the Name of the Lord with sincerity and love: grace to you, and peace from God our Father.
The day we married in January of 2017 was the coldest day of that year in South Louisiana. The air itself seemed to stand still. We stood before God and a a few family members, committing our lives to one another and taking vows that were not merely for a moment—but for eternity. What God joined together that day, we have never taken lightly, for a covenant is not man-made, but God-given (Matt. 19:6).
One of the hymns we all sang together that day was “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” At the time, it felt like a beautiful wedding choice. But as the years have unfolded, we have looked back again and again and realized how perfectly true it has remained. From the first moments of our covenant until now, the Lord has proven faithful in every season.
From that day forward, the Lord began shaping not just our individual lives, but our home, our faith, and our calling as one. What He had sown in each of us separately, He began to weave together—sometimes gently, sometimes through trials that taught us humility, forgiveness, and dependence on His Spirit.
We did not fully understand then all that He would ask of us: the children He would entrust to our care, the ministries He would birth in our hearts, the people He would send to our table, the storms and trials He would lead us through, and the visions He would unfold over time. But we knew this: our marriage belonged to Him. Our home belonged to Him. Our future belonged to Him.
And as the Scriptures say, “Two are better than one… for if one falls, the other will lift up his companion” (Eccl. 4:9–10). This has been our testimony from the beginning.
In the letters ahead, we want to share some of the ways the Lord began to form our family and reveal His calling to us — through prayer, through dreams, through unexpected moments of guidance, and through the daily faithfulness of learning to walk as one in Christ.
Peace be with you,
Paul & Shelby
