How My Faith Led Me To My Husband
As a young woman at Oral Roberts University, I wanted the right husband so much that one day I sat down before the Lord and said, “I do not want to date just to date. That is not me. You know the man you have for me, and I ask You to make it plain to me in my spirit. Tell me things about this man so that when I see him and meet him, there will be no doubt in my mind that he is the one You have chosen for me, to be his helpmate.”
I sat there in prayer and something came to mind.
His first name will be a nickname and will be three letters long.
I wrote that down. Something else came to mind, breathed by the Spirit.
He will be this tall.
I received an exact height, and I wrote it down.
His hair will be sandy blond in color.
I wrote that down.
He will be viewed as very intelligent.
I wrote that down. So far, so good! Then God really blessed me.
He will have a strong love for Me. He will have a love for playing the guitar. And he will have a strong love for you, Mary.
That last part went right through me. “Aww, thank You for that, Lord,” I replied. I posted the list on my bedroom wall, and my roommate noticed it one day.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“I was praying about my future husband,” I replied. “God gave me this list so I would know who He has for me.” That put her on alert too!
A month went by. Two months, then three months. Still I had no sign of a sandy-haired, guitar- playing, Jesus-loving, intelligent man.
The following Sunday I was at church, sitting in the back and scanning the young men in the congregation, looking for sandy blond hair. All of a sudden I heard the Spirit of God speak to me, “What are you doing?” I froze and could only reply, “You know what I am doing.”
It was like I heard Him chuckle, and He said to me, “The man I have for you will find you. You will not find him.”
I stopped hunting right then and there. It came to my mind that the Word of God actually says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord” (Prov. 18:22). Notice that the man is doing the finding! I’m not making a doctrine for everybody out of this, but it certainly fit what the Holy Spirit had told me. My job was to stand on what I’d heard and believed: my future husband would find me.
A month or two later my roommate and I went to a Christian concert. During the concert a student was asked to stand up to model the T-shirts they were selling. He was a bodybuilder, sandy blond, and gorgeous. My roommate was going nuts. “Where has this guy been hiding from us on campus?” she asked. We had never seen him before. “Let’s go to the shirt table afterward,” she insisted. “Let’s find out who this guy is.”
I agreed, and she started flirting with him while I stood by looking at the T-shirts. His name was Buz, or at least that’s what everyone called him. She was finding out all about him and keeping a pretty good flow of conversation up when suddenly Buz turned and looked at me.
“I know who you are,” he said.
“Me?” I blurted out. I knew I had never seen him before. “I don’t think so,” I responded. “No, no, I went down with the street-preaching team about a month ago, and you were preaching on the street corners to the prostitutes and drug addicts,” he said.
He was right. I stood there staring at him and replied, “Yes, I do that quite often.”
“I asked someone who you were. Man, girl, you have boldness. I have never seen anybody as bold as you. I really admire that about you.”
I flushed an unmistakable red. “Well, thank you,” I replied, and our conversation ended as others broke in.
I found out later that he had told his mom about meeting me. But I was sure he was not the one. I learned he dated mostly cheerleaders, and I was not the cheerleader type. I could not envision this man ever being interested in me.
A few months later I saw Buz again at another Christian concert, and we fell into a conversation for a little while. It was nothing serious, just a light catching up. But afterward I was standing by my car and he came running across the parking lot yelling my name.
“Mary! Mary!” I turned and looked at him.
“Wow, there you are. I finally found you,” he said. “I have been looking for you everywhere.”
“I finally found you.” That phrase struck my memory as familiar. “There’s no way,” I thought. “Not this guy. It can’t be.” We talked on and on, but I don’t remember anything else we said because my head was spinning. “Oh, my gosh, are you my husband?” I thought. “He does fit the list better than anyone else I know.”
We started seeing each other casually, and during our first lunch together, I sat there like a little drill sergeant peppering him with questions. “How tall are you? Do you like to play the guitar? Tell me about your walk with the Lord.”
His height was exactly the height on my list. His name was Donald, but he went by a nickname, Buz, that his friends and family back home had given him. It was three letters long. He loved playing his guitar and told me the songs he was learning. He said he was passionate about Jesus and the love of God, and he loved going to vespers. I knew it was not phony. Love for God was a part of every fiber in him. He was absolutely, completely dedicated to Jesus.
I sat there, numb. That night I told my roommate, “You were right. That is the man God has for me. He’s my husband.”
Within a year we were married, and we have now been married for more than forty years. People who know us say it is amazing the amount of love Don has for God and for me. I clung to the vision on my list. I didn’t go running after second-rate possibilities. I praised God in advance, before I ever met Don, for giving me a great husband. God gave me an incredible gift, and I believe my obedient faith excited God.
This is an adapted excerpt from Prayer That Changes Everything: 5 Principles to Activate Your Faith by Mary Colbert. Copyright ©2020 Published by Charisma House. Used by permission.
