Old Dan

Okay.

A little history about my man.

Dan is a steady guy. He only takes command when he needs to but his personality likes others to be in charge. He is really sharp and loves working with his hands. He is very efficient but doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. He's also very funny. He always looks on the bright side and rarely complains. Everybody likes him because he has a mellow, laid-back personality and gets along with everyone.

Dan and I met at age 18, just after high school. He was shy, introverted but very funny. He liked to make people laugh. He had grown up in a Christian home but had made some poor choices during high school. He had just started going back to church when we met.

We got married a couple years later and attended church together. We were involved in the small groups and faithfully attended every week. We tithed regularly and eventually got involved in some of the different ministries. He is an excellent guitar player and so he played on the worship team. We also helped in the Sunday School classes as well. On the outside, we looked like a normal, Christian Evangelical, middle class family. We were generally happy but not blissfully so.

Dan wasn't a spiritual leader at home. We prayed at meal times and bed times with the kids but never together as a couple. We had no family devotions or spiritual talks on what God was doing in our lives. He wouldn't engage that way with us. Typically he would come home, play his guitar, do some hobby and serf the web for more guitar parts or hobby stuff. We rarely talked about what was taught at church and I don't remember ever seeing him read his Bible.

Don't get me wrong. Dan was and is a wonderful father and husband. He loves his kids and likes me a lot too. ;) We were just kids growing up together and learning a lot along the way.

Both of us had a lot of maturing to do.

I like to say that the old Dan only read two books. His guitar book (with lots of pictures) and his electrical codes book. (He's an electrician.)