Of Mercies and of Miracles: Our First Year of Marriage

Everything changed that day. As I reached for my fiancé’s hand at the Payson, Utah temple and we were pronounced husband and wife, eternity shifted. The heavens had touched the earth and made a new family. From that moment on, everything in my life would be different, cast in a new light, imbued with a new meaning, fitted with a renewed sense of purpose.

The ensuing revolution around the sun Bryce and I have taken together has been the best year of my life. It’s been filled with joy, beauty, loss, heartache, fulfilled dreams, renewed hopes, and miracles beyond what I could have imagined. We’ve lived in two states, traveled to 19 states and Canada, held five different church callings between the two of us, earned two more college degrees, and learned an incredible amount about love, sacrifice, and miracles. Those miracles of the Lord have attended us in our journey, from the most mundane to the most heartbreaking of situations. We have seen the God of heaven smile down upon us and support us. As the LDS hymn “Bless our Fast, We Pray,” says, on this anniversary of entering into the marriage covenant with my beloved husband I want to “as [a] witness . . . thank and to attest of mercies and of miracles” that a loving God has bestowed upon His children.

I count in these marriage mercies and miracles the profound manifestations of God’s hand that my family witnessed in the days leading up to the wedding. The week prior to my established wedding date, my father suffered an unexpected stroke. In that moment, my world seemed to stop turning. The final I was to take in the morning no longer seemed important. Any preoccupation with the perfect wedding reception fled. All that mattered was family. Never had temple covenants seen so important and relevant as I craved, relied upon, and trusted in that promise of eternity that comes through sacred covenants made in God’s temples. As Bryce and I rushed from the airport to the hospital’s ICU, my aching, racing heart prayed fervently for the life of my father. And for the added blessing of having him witness me enter into the sacred marriage covenant the following week. Never had I felt myself so completely dependent upon the mercies of the Lord as during those long hours spent in the hospital by my dad’s side. Our fervent prayers, our fasts, and the love we showed strengthened our family relationships and brought me even closer to my fiancé. I was deeply grateful for the stalwart man by my side who went with me into the refiner’s fire and held my hand as I cried and worried.

 It would take much more time and space to recount every miracle that occurred during those days and nights. But suffice it to say, despite the predictions of doctors, and thanks to my dad’s hard work and dedication and an abundance of the Lord’s miracles, 24 hours before the sealing ceremony, my father was discharged from the hospital. My heart was full that day, and the next as I walked into the sealing room and saw my father sitting at the front smiling. Bryce and I were humbled to see the very beginning of our marriage graced so prominently with the Lord’s abundant mercies. I knew without a doubt that God cared about me and my family. I knew He would continue to watch over us as Bryce and I began our new family.

So touched by grace in our moment of extremity, our marriage began. The flood of mercies and miracles has not ceased since that time, and I marvel at what God has wrought in the past year.

After a beautiful honeymoon in Vancouver, Canada, Bryce and I drove up to our brand new apartment in Pittsburgh, a mere week married. God’s mercies awaited us there. To our delight, we discovered that the last-minute apartment we had been able to secure from Craigslist was just down the street from the LDS church building. Not to mention we were a walk of mere minutes from campus. The Lord blessed us with friends who helped and supported us. We learned to rely on each other and develop our own family traditions. Those weeks flew by as Bryce and I began our married lives together. We reveled in the blessing of being able to serve together in the nursery at church. We enjoyed our early- (and sometimes later-) morning runs together through the beautiful Pittsburgh hills. We frequently retired to a field near our home in the evening where we would stand in wonder and watch the beautiful miracle of hundreds of tiny fireflies, dancing their praise to their Maker. Those Pittsburgh months were a sweet miracle of growth, learning, adjustment, and beauty as we came to rely more on the Lord and each other.

We have witnessed miracles in our routine acts of devotion to our God. Heaven has touched our home as we have knelt together in daily prayer and joined in our nightly scripture study. The temple has been our monthly refuge, offering strength and peace and joy as we have entered those sacred walls hand-in-hand. We have felt the Spirit of the Lord speak to us, answering questions, providing revelation, correcting us, inspiring us as we have sought to draw closer to the Father of our spirits.

Our engagement in school and work has provided ample opportunity for God to show His hand in our marriage. He has sustained us through the long days (and sometimes nights) of obligations, deadlines, papers, and projects. Somehow we made it to our respective graduations from UVA (Bryce with Highest Distinction, which I am not shy bragging about), grateful for the heavenly support we have received. And often that heavenly support came through each other, as God mentored us on how to be loving spouses and strengthen one another when the pressures of school and work mounted. Truly marriage provides opportunities to minister to one of God’s children in a powerful and meaningful way.

We have seen God’s miracles as our families confronted death over this past year. Bryce and I learned more fully to mourn with and comfort one another as my grandfather and his aunt left this world. We grew even more in this respect as we faced loss within our own brand-new family, too. I count as a sweet miracle the feeling of peace that descended upon the UVA hospital emergency room in December as Bryce held my hand and—at my request—read to me the story of Christ’s birth from Luke 2. We grieved the miscarriage that took our baby from us, confused at how this life, newly granted, could be taken away before we even met the child. Yet in the story of Mary’s faithful reliance on the Lord, we sensed that because Mary’s Baby had been born thousands of years ago, it would somehow be okay that our little baby would not be born. We trusted that the Savior’s atonement could heal us. And we felt the strengthening miracles of God’s grace amidst the days of confusion and the nights of bitter tears. We came to understand more fully that God consecrates all of our afflictions for our gain, as we saw a host of miracles of strength and personal growth flow from our tragedy. We became stronger, better people because of that loss, and we learned to rely more fully on one another and on our God.

In my second (current) pregnancy, we have witnessed the miracles of the Lord’s hand again. We have been strengthened to trust again; to rejoice in the little life I can feel stirring inside me without fear that this one, too, will be lost. We have felt deep healing wash over our souls and an abiding hope in and reliance on the Lord has grown in our hearts. We have spent many sacred moments together, speaking in hushed voices about the future of our little one, how we will raise this precious son of God, how we can teach him to love and trust the Lord, how we can grow and become the parents God wants us to be. As we have read, sung, and spoken to our little unborn son, we have been overcome with joy and wonder. The profoundly complicated human body that is developing within my own is one of the greatest miracles God has wrought. We feel humbled and closer to heaven—and each other—as we reflect on the magnificence of this little soul who will soon be joining us.

God’s mercies and miracles have attended us every day of our marriage. From the growth of our little “marriage mango” and avocado trees to the times we’ve found parking on a busy morning to the beautiful Charlottesville sunsets we’ve enjoyed, we have recognized God’s hand in even the small things. We know with even more surety today than we did one year ago as we knelt across that sacred altar that marriage is of the Lord and that He supports, sustains, and blesses all those who seek to abide by this holy covenant. His miracles strengthen husband and wife, drawing them closer to each other and to the Giver of life. I stand in awe of the Lord and all He has done for me and Bryce in this past beautiful, sacred year.

I am grateful for the miracle that Bryce is in my life—for his constant love, devotion, humor, hard work, faith, and compassion. I am grateful for the miracle of holy covenants made in a temple of God that bind me and Bryce together forever as husband and wife and tie our children to us for all eternity.

So once again, I say, “As witnesses we gather here to thank and to attest of mercies and of miracles, O still our lives so bless!”

And I know God will indeed continue to bless our lives with His beautiful mercies and miracles as we begin our second year of marriage.