"Choose your companions before you choose your road."

Wise words from four time Emmy award winner; executive producer Mark Burnett. [follow him on Twitter)

I heard him interviewed at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit this week.

Mark, along with several other world renown speakers shared their strategies for becoming a better leader.

The 170,000, who were in audiences all over the U.S.A., were motivated to push through criticism; to see the word NO, as 'N' 'O' = Next opportunity.  We were challenged to to humble ourselves and ask for forgiveness, or give forgiveness.  We were reminded that we are God's Plan A, and that if we can change behavior, we can change the world.

I was most encouraged by Burnett's statement.  He reminded me of some advice I got from someone else that I admire.  Over the past few years, as I have transitioned into different life phases, I have wrestled with the balance of singleness & serving overseas vs. marriage.

In a conversation a couple of years ago, with Bob Creson, President and CEO of Wycliffe Bible Translators, I shared my uncertainties about these scenarios.

He listened and then said, "Who you do life with is more important that what you do."

He wasn't necessarily promoting marriage, and he wasn't detracting from living overseas as a field worker.

He was challenging me to give priority to placing myself among the right people as I walk through spheres of work and recreation.

As I think about getting married in a few months, I feel incredibly blessed to know that the man I will do life with will be the fuel for whatever God calls me to do.  And as his wife, I am called on to support and spur him on in whatever God calls him to do!  Of course, our lives will be unified more so that God will be calling us as a couple more than as individuals.

God has placed each of us in each other's lives as a gift to bring a new angle of glory and honor to Him that is altogether different from the glory we may have brought him as a singles.  Not better or worse, just more multifaceted.

What a joy to know that the no matter how many pot-holes or how foggy the road ahead may seem, we will be walking it together, with the Lord leading us each step of the way.