Great Team

Saturday evening, I officiated Sami and Stephen’s wedding ceremony at The Oasis, in Red Oak, Texas. Here are the remarks I shared with them and their guests:

The first thing Stephen said when I asked him to describe his spiritual history reads like a disclaimer, “My spiritual history isn’t anything crazy.” It’s understandable, because after all we are in Texas, and in case you didn’t notice, down here we definitely do crazy in the area of spirituality and religion. It’s our default position, in fact. 

Now, if there is one other state that can prepare you for Texas crazy, out of all the other 49, you’d have to say it was Florida. Luckily, these future Texans attended FSU. Now, they didn’t actually meet at FSU, but it figures heavily in their relationship’s origin story. It did take time, though. Sami says, “The first time I actually remember meeting Stephen was New Year's Eve 2017 when our friend groups all celebrated together. He was immature and I was not interested!” Stephen admits as much but does say those words that make every man’s heart sing, “I had successfully gotten her number.”

According to Sami, the next part of the story, which happened twenty months later was pretty simple: “He had seemed to mature since the last time I saw him.” That seems like a logical statement, until you hear that he contacted her telling her that they would both be in the same city, and that his mode of transportation would be, I swear I am not making this up, a “Chicken Limo”. Stephen helpfully explains this as, “exactly what you think it is – a 90’s era yellow limousine with a giant chicken head protruding from the roof.” I imagine that this is what the FSU website is referring to when it speaks of, “embracing a philosophy of learning strongly rooted in the traditions of the liberal arts and critical thinking.”

That weekend proved critical. By the end of it, Stephen and Sami had a true bond. Stephen says, “I knew I had met someone that I could build something truly meaningful with by gaining a mutual understanding of our shared values and who we were deep down… I had never encountered someone for which I felt every level of connection with – physical attraction, friendship, and aligned deeper values.” Sami agrees, disclosing that maybe back in 2017 she was a tiny bit interested after all, with this new encounter awakening something inside of her, “Not only did we have an initial attraction that had never faded, but our personalities, senses of humor, and values were completely in sync.”

This is such an important lesson for all of us. Many attributes figure into a relationship. The most important, though, sometimes the most overlooked, is this important aspect, values. You can grow up in different religions, you can have different characteristics, you can have different tastes, but shared values are a must. 

One specific value stands out, and it is, in my humble opinion the most important. Stephen states it well, “We are a great team, and when you have a relationship where each person truly in their heart wants what is best for the other, the challenges that all relationships face do not seem as challenging.”