A Couple’s Journey – The Beginning

By Larry and Carol Smith. Posted June 5, 2016

Carol and I decided, a while back, that we wanted to do a blog that was based around our travels. We are an older couple, only married for a couple of years, and we especially enjoy visiting national and state parks and forests. For a while now, we’ve been taking pictures at the places we visit and posting them on Facebook. That is fun, but there is a whole lot more to our outings together than can be seen on the outside. As we experience nature together, we are also experiencing God and each other. We are learning and growing, and understanding more and more what it means to not only be one flesh as a couple but also to acknowledge that God is that third strand (Ecc. 4:12) that is woven together with us to make us strong. Life is a journey, and so is relationship. Love is a journey too. The most important journey is getting to know God; who He is and who we are in Him. In this blog, and those to follow, Carol and I both want to share our feelings about God and life and love. Carol’s comments will be in a different color and also bold since some browsers don’t display the colors.

As you can tell Larry has a way with words that will actually set you right down in the surroundings he is describing! I don’t claim to have that grace or poetic verse even inside my little toe. But, I do want to share my heart with you and hope to inspire someone to go out and seek the beauty and peace that we find every time we go on one of our “adventures.”

When we were dating, we talked about what we thought our relationship and marriage should be like. We talked about how we wanted God to be first. We envisioned how life was going to be; the two of us winning the world for Christ. And then we actually got married and found out that we needed to win ourselves for Christ before we could do very much to win the world.

Looking back now I can see where I was quite naive about some things. Today, I have a little more understanding about who we are and why we are here. “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)”

Our honeymoon was a trip to East Alabama, to the Fort Payne area. Our list of attractions included Mentone,  DeSoto State Park and Little River Canyon.

Mentone was pretty well deserted when we got there, so we found a hotel in Fort Payne to stay in for the night. The next morning we looked on the web and found a nearby bed and breakfast that looked good. We booked a room and headed to the location. When we arrived, we were a little disappointed that the property was not very well kept. We considered backing out, but the little complex of rooms located way out in the woods near DeSoto Falls seemed very quiet and peaceful, so we checked in.

The landscape around the property was just beautiful, and after getting settled into the room, we took our first real hike together. It wasn’t a strenuous hike, but it did require teamwork and trust. We were alone in the woods together but we were together in the world. The bible teaches that man and wife become one flesh. What exactly did that mean? Was it a literal, actual physical, mental, emotional and spiritual change? Or was man and wife becoming one more of an ideal to aspire to, a philosophical concept to grasp and apply. We had known each other for a while, but we were still new to each other in many ways. Was becoming one a process that a couple must work toward? Or was it a change given from God that we had to realize and feel and submit to? As we hiked I pondered these questions, and I’m sure that Carol was also trying to sort out the meaning of what we had gotten ourselves into by getting married.

The woods were gorgeous. Spring was still in the air and flowers were everywhere. Through the trees, we could see the deep canyon that contained Desoto Falls. It was wildly beautiful and yet completely treacherous and dangerous at the same time. That’s what our new marriage seemed like too, wildly beautiful and yet somehow dangerous. But if God put us together, if we really believed that He did, we had to give it our trust. Everything that is meaningful and worth doing contains an element of risk. Trusting God requires obedience and submission, putting ourselves into His hands, doing the best we can. We trust. We allow God’s will to take place in our lives in spite of the risk, whatever may happen.

God shows up and of course shows out each time we step out on a trail and one of the most breathtaking ways is through the flowers. The rhododendron were in bloom and the deep pink colors were amazing. I had never seen them in that way and walking down a wooded path with them everywhere made me feel like I was in a tropical paradise! This is definitely the place to experience God’s artwork in May.

Our Heavenly Father is a master at orchestrating and He continues to prove this with every step we take. When He tells us that He knows the plans for us in the book of Jeremiah we can be assured he has the details worked out down to what note will be played in our very next second. I am the glass that is half full type person, so during our wedding trip I was bubbling over with enthusiasm never even second guessing anything about us or our future. As Larry already expressed he is more down to earth and the thinker, which is good because he keeps us out of a whole lot of trouble.

Our first hike ended at a bench near the edge of the canyon, across from Desoto Falls. From the nearby overlook, visitors could watch the gushing torrent of water spill out from over the top and make it’s more than 100 foot journey to the bottom into a crystal lake. We sat on the bench and rested before making the hike back to the bed and breakfast. Both of our minds were racing a mile a minute as we talked about our future and how we wanted God to be first. I was thinking that our journey was much like that of the waterfall. We had just plummeted over the edge of a ledge into a deep ravine, and we had no idea how deep it really was. We had to believe that when we reached the destination it would be as beautiful and clean and crystal clear as the pool at the bottom of Desoto Falls.

We felt tired after the hike and, arriving back at the lodge, settled into our room. It was late afternoon, and there were no other guests. We saw the owner outside and spoke to her briefly. She gave us the schedule for breakfast and check out and then disappeared into her home. We headed out walking again to explore the property. There was some evidence that the place used to be a Christian camp. A broken cross lay near an open area that may have been for bonfires.

Later on we sat on the porch outside the room and watched the sunset. Usually that is a serene and relaxing experience, but both of us somehow felt uneasy. There was something sad and haunting that overshadowed the beauty of nature around us. I grabbed the guitar and strummed worship songs and soft music hoping the music would wash away the uneasy feeling. But the music didn’t change the feeling, so we headed back to the room and sat on the bed holding each other.

Even in the room, the uneasy feeling was present. It was scary, and we wondered if spirits or demons haunted the place. On the bed, in the dim light, we glanced fearfully at the dark corners. Then we began to pray that God would remove whatever wasn’t right on the property. And we prayed for the owner, asking God to reveal His presence to her and draw her to Him. Still in each other’s arms, we finally drifted off to sleep with the comfort of God’s presence and protection around us. In that moment I began to understand a little of what God meant when He said “It is not good for man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18).

The next morning we got up early and headed to the owner’s house for breakfast. While eating, we told of how we met and married. The owner talked of her life and how she came to be the proprietor of a bed and breakfast. Cautiously sharing our testimony, we emphasized our desire to find God’s will and make Him first in our relationship. Our talking about Jesus seemed to bother the owner a little, and she backed off a little from the conversation. Sensing this, we changed the subject for the rest of the meal.

It was time to leave so we headed back to the room to pack up. I felt that we had failed at being good witnesses for the Lord. We had obviously offended, or at least bothered, the owner causing her to back off from rather than move toward the message of the Gospel. We discussed our feelings. I felt that rather than express the love of Christ, we had delivered a rather clumsily disguised religious sales pitch. We were just barely married and yet portrayed ourselves a rock-solid couple. This kind of solidity could only really be proven by time. We presented ourselves as strong and mature Christians, which we certainly were in our own eyes. Perhaps, not realizing it, we were a little smug and arrogant. Perhaps we had “thought more highly of ourselves than we ought (Romans 12:3)” and in doing so alienated the bed and breakfast owner, who saw right through us.

What we may have failed to realize is that no intentional witnessing effort was even necessary. Perhaps we had been trying to do God’s job for Him. Rather than openly witnessing, we should have simply been kind and humble, good listeners, open to sharing whenever appropriate. It is the Father Himself who draws men unto Him (John 6:65). Carol and I had no doubt that the Lord put us in the room with that person. But God’s intention may have not been for her benefit. Rather, He may have had a lesson for us. Or perhaps our actions rather than our open testimony were meant to say more than a thousand words could.

We drove away from the bed and breakfast with another shared experience and set of memories under our belts. Back in Fort Payne, we found a motel room and spent the next few days exploring Desoto State Park and Little River Canyon.

On our second day of hiking, we got lost in the woods and wandered the trails for 8 miles before finding our way back out. We were exhausted, but the experience was awesome! Yeah, we were lost, but we were together and it felt good. We were learning to trust each other.

The days of our honeymoon quickly passed, and it was finally time to head back to the house. It occurred to me that we were not quite the same people we were before the trip.

We were learning and growing together. We were leaning on each other. Our spirits and souls, and it even seemed like our flesh, were melding together into one. As we drove back home after that wonderful week, I felt truly a part of something much greater than the sum of the parts. Carol and I were, a little at a time, doing something that was hard to do: submit to each other. Learning to submit was a little scary, but it was also an adventure and even kind of fun. Life was good; life together was awesome. God’s love for us and our love for each other was becoming more and more obvious with each experience and each memory that we made together.

We don’t have it all together and definitely are not any of those follow me I know the way fanatics. What we are is two people becoming one and loving the ride with Our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to bring encouragement and hope to couples and singles who are seeking truth, peace and most of all love. Join us as we make heart prints on God’s trail. . . God Bless

The entire content of this blog post © 2016 by Larry and Carol Smith