My husband comes from a traditional, German-Mennonite background. It's not so conservative that the women cover their heads and make babies and bread... but traditional because the order of worship and church politics tend to be a bit more right-winged. He's tall, white, blonde w/ green eyes (disregard the picture above!) and speaks 3 languages.
I on the other hand am the oldest daughter of a "mixed" couple. My mother is from the US and my father from Colombia (South America). My life began in a double-cradled-culture. And before I was 8 years old, my entire family moved to Peru (a 3rd culture!). Then later to Paraguay (a 4th culture!). My skin color can be described comically as "Cafe con Leche". My dad is the coffee and my mom is the milk. I am the warm brown in between. I have dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. I speak 2 languages.
My point in this blog is not to set myself on the opposite side of a boxing ring as my husband - far from it! I want to share the amazing beauty of the attraction of opposites and the blessing it becomes to itself and to others in proximity.
Before tying the knot 8 years ago, a few concerned and outspoken people spoke to us on the complexity of merging two different cultures. "It's not going to be easy," they'd say. But we'd prayed about it and knew that God was leading us down the path of marriage and a future together. But all along I held the words of caution close to my heart. And (wisely) any moment I felt that our backgrounds were closing in on us, we'd stop and talk. Sometimes we wouldn't even notice the looming conflict and in the end we'd confusingly have to explain why we did/said what we did. But we'd always get it out and work through it. It never really seemed like a huge mountain to us... (at least not to me!). It's just the way things were... My parents were a priceless example to me before i even met my husband of how a couple worked differences out. thank you Jesus for them!
This is my life... I live it every day. Jesus says to 'let your light shine before the world.' I'm positive i wasn't doing that in my marriage life. I'm not hiding anything at all! I'm reading my Bible, praying for wisdom and love, taking the time to love my husband and live righteously. But not really paying attention to others watching me as I live my life.
This past weekend at the youth meeting that my husband was asked to speak at, a newly married couple (Interracial) approached us. They had been married for 4 months and they thanked us for our example. "If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be married!" Oh wow! I had NO CLUE who they were! My husband had to play the Mennonite Game w/ the young man to figure out who he was :) I'm flabbergasted at how God can use our lives without us even participating in His plan. I was only taking care of myself! But God's so much bigger than our limited goals. He worked past me, to get to other people who needed the encouragement of my experiences to do what they felt God moving them to do. All I could say was 'Thank you, Jesus' and renew a personal commitment to keep my eyes open to those who may been watching me... I want to shine my light bc God gave it to me and lit up my life.
Cindy
