Better Together
A cord of three strands is not easily broken. –Ecclesiastes 4:12
The best things in life are meant to be shared. We love our
story, so we want to share it with you…
(Photocredit: Meagan White)
Call to me and I will
answer you and tell you the great and unsearchable things that you do not know.
-Jeremiah 33:3
Sometimes God surprises you with something you’ve always
hoped for. Other times He surprises you with something you never could have
imagined. For us, He surprised us with both. Both of us continually find
ourselves trying to fathom the reality of how much we each long to be in the
other’s life in such a significant way. It is undeniably humbling to like
someone so amazing and for that person to like you back. Unbelievable.
DARIN: I have always
taken relationships very seriously, which is why I’ve never been inclined to
just jump into one. I believe a relationship should be absolutely intentional.
So, why would I ever desire to “date” someone I did not see as a potential
marriage partner? My aim has always been the pursuit of contentedness
regardless of circumstance and feeling, committed to waiting until God showed
someone obvious to me. In short, dating is dumb and God is sovereign.
EMILEE: Neither
Darin or I were looking for a relationship, but always loved the simplicity and
fun of our friendship, never giving a thought that we could or ever would be
anything more. However, as the Lord began to reveal His will, we trusted that
He would align our hearts and allow us to love and be loved in a way we had
never experienced before. We have never been interested in “dating just to
date” or “dating to find out” and wanted to make sure we were stepping into
something that was both God ordained and God glorifying. And ultimately, we
wanted to be sure that we would be able to serve, love, and glorify the Lord in
a way that we couldn’t do as well separately as we could together. This sounds simplistic, and the
end result was, however the journey to this place of intentionality was
certainly one of great refining, dependence on the Lord, and complete
surrender. As we started our journey, we prayed for obedience, wisdom,
patience, and for His will to be done…which turned out to be a pretty dangerous
prayer. Ha!
(Photocredit: Meagan White)
Trust the Lord with
all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. -Proverbs 3:5
DARIN: I had been
close with Emilee’s family for several years and had never given a thought, or
even a feeling, to Emilee being anything but a sister. In fact, I was extremely
excited to be able to play the brother role in her life. And in an instant and
a simple moment, God allowed me to see her in a way I had never seen anyone…a
way in which I could not imagine my life without her. I knew Emilee was
different as soon as I experienced an unforeseen desire to spend my life bringing joy to her life. I knew this was something
special, because I had never experienced anything like it before. In fact, I
still don’t understand. But, I love it. The desire to give regardless of what I
get was a sure sign I was in view of something I could never fathom letting go
of.
The more I got to know her heart, the more I longed to be a
part of her future. By far the most attractive thing about Emilee is her love
for God and her love for people. It is contagious. It is convicting. She just
flat out makes me better, especially for the sake of the kingdom.
EMILEE: For an
entire year, there was never a doubt in my mind about how Darin felt about me.
He was everything I had ever prayed for and more and pursued me in a way I had
always dreamed of. The journey of understanding the Lord’s will and getting to
a place of absolute surrender definitely caused frustration, however the Lord
used this time to place my dependency and trust in Him and allowed me to fall
more in love with my Creator. He guarded and protected my heart as He molded me
into who He had created me to be and prepared me for who He had in store for
me. After several months of surrender and preparation, the Lord allowed me to
see Darin in a way I had never seen anyone before. And that makes me SO happy!
(Photocredit: Meagan White)
The Lord will fight
for you, you need only to be still. - Exodus 14:14
DARIN: When I
first began having feelings for Emilee, I immediately sought the wisdom of
those I respected because above all I wanted what was best for Emilee, and was
not convinced that I was it. Through many (seriously MANY) emotional days, both
good and bad, and through countless questions to God, I discovered clarity,
conviction, and confidence to take a step forward in life WITH Emilee. It is
surreal. It is humbling. It is amazing.
EMILEE: Having
never been in a romantic relationship before, I had a skewed idea of what a
relationship looked like. I had read books, watched movies, and had seen
firsthand what I wanted and what I did not want in a relationship. Beyond my
third person vantage point however, the idea of entering into a relationship
completely terrified me. For years I had dreamed and prayed for the man the
Lord had been preparing for me. I would swoon over the love stories portrayed
in movies and be completely enthralled in the books I read. As I watched and
read the stories, I always prayed that someday I would have a love story of my
own. Well, after years of refining, teaching, and preparing me, God revealed my Prince Charming. The
best friend and “big brother” I had known for years unexpectedly stole my heart
and has completely changed my life. Darin surpasses every hope I had ever
hoped, every dream I had ever dreamed, and every prayer I have ever prayed (I
know it sounds cliché and cheesy, but it’s true). He teaches me how to love
better, serve better, and ultimately be
better.
Can I just take a minute to say the Top 5 that I love about
my sweet boy? I could certainly give more than just 5 but will spare you all.
Ha! If you can’t handle the gush, skip on down to the next paragraph.
1. He loves the Lord and seeks to serve and glorify Him in every way
possible. He is truly a man after God’s own heart. I absolutely love that about
him!
2. He is such a humble servant to all he comes in contact
with. He is so generous with his time, money, and resources. I absolutely love
the way he loves and serves people and love that I get to serve alongside of
him for the rest of my life.
3. He loves his family. He never misses an opportunity to spend intentional
time with his family and loves them with such a grateful and humble heart. I
love watching his face light up when he talks about his family and love how
proud he is of them. They are absolutely amazing and I love getting to love
them as well!
4. He loves my family. Darin has been a part of my family for years now and
hasn’t left us yet…that tells you something. Ha! He serves, encourages, and
loves my family in a way that brings me so much joy. I love how perfectly he
fits into my family and love that my family loves him and he loves them.
5. He makes me laugh. I love how quick he is to laugh at himself or with others
and love that he enjoys the simple things in life. I feel like I am constantly
giggling or smiling at him…or shaking my head at his silliness. I love it.
(Photocredit: Meagan White)
So do not fear, for I
am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and
help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. - Isaiah 41:10
DARIN: Honestly I
have always been afraid of love, because I didn’t believe I had the capacity to love someone, especially in the way a
girl deserved. But when my heart was turned toward Emilee, I experienced the
unforeseen desire to spend the rest of my life giving all that I could to her
in an effort to make her the happiest girl in the world. I am absolutely
humbled to even have the opportunity to walk down the road of life alongside
her. Her sheer beauty blows me away, but what really makes her shine in my eyes
is her love for God and for others. Her desire to give her life away for the
sake of the Kingdom focuses me, humbles me, and just flat our makes me better.
I love Emilee Hancock with all that I am and simply cannot imagine life without
her.
EMILEE: I absolutely
LOVE getting to LOVE Darin. I am humbled every day that I get to be the one to
love him, serve with him, and do life with him for the rest of our lives. I
love so many things about Darin and look forward to falling more in love with
him every day as we learn and grow together and make memories for a lifetime. I
am excited to learn how to better love, serve, and affirm him and pray that the
Lord would refine and humble me to become the best partner in ministry and
partner in life for Darin and to ultimately become the woman that God has
created me to be. I am excited to be led by Darin as he is led by the Lord and
cannot wait to be Kingdom Builders together. I am enjoying every moment of the
stage we are in now but certainly smile when I think about all that the Lord
has in store for our future together. I can’t wait to see where He leads us and
who He leads us to and pray that He would prepare and refine us in the
meantime. I love getting to love and be loved by Darin and pray that I’ll never
get used to hearing him tell me that he loves me too. I just love love.
(Photocredit: Meagan White)
Seek first the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added onto you. -
Matthew 6:33
So…who are we together? What are we?
First of all, we hate titles and labels…just too trite…and
never fully accurate. Yet, we understand the importance of establishing an
intended direction…So, regarding more of a direction and less of a label, we
are: not dating, but instead a more accurate description of our intent is that
we are courting. Our relationship does not exist for the sake of us going out
or just having a good time together. Instead, it is a time of both intentional
pursuit and intentional waiting. A time committed first and foremost to God as
a time of refinement and preparation for what He has for us. We are good
together now, but we want to be great together later. This means how we move
together now is extremely important for the sake of our future in glorifying God
in the utmost.
The bottom line is we are TOGETHER and believe we have been brought together. And that brings us both great joy! BUT, it
doesn’t end there. While we love having the opportunity to be together, our
relationship is not about us. We
want everyone who comes in contact with us to experience joy as well and know
that our ultimate purpose of being together is to better love, serve, and
glorify God. We are so much better together at being distributors
of His joy.
(Photocredit: Meagan White)
Our journey has been one of many struggles and frustrations
but has also been one of so much joy
and special moments. Our journey has brought us to the place we are now and has
shaped us into the people we are and for that we are so thankful. We have learned
to be more dependent on God and how to surrender our lives to Him and trust Him
with all that we are and all that we hope to be. Through this refining process,
we have been given a beautifully written love story that is perfectly imperfect
in our eyes. We are so humbled and thankful to be able to serve and do
life TOGETHER and cannot wait to see how the Lord continues to use and bless us
as we seek Him. We are so excited to see where He leads us, who He leads us to,
and how He shapes us into His likeness. AND we are excited to see what fun
adventures we’ll experience, what fun memories we’ll create, and what laughter
we’ll share.
So there you have it, that’s our story…a
story authored by God our Father, our Encourager, and our only Constant.
The Lord is my
strength-my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I
will give thanks to him in song. -Psalm 28:7
For over a year now this has been our ultimate song of
surrender. Our greatest desire is to daily give everything we have to the Lord
for the sake of the Kingdom and to bring Him glory.
