Getting to Know Meghan

Editors Note: This week on the Family Life Blog, we are getting a closer look at the Mellingers. Jared and Meghan have joined together to provide us with little windows into their marriage, their family, and their own hearts. Check back each day for the next installment.














I love when people get to know Meghan. I love even more when I get to tell people some of the many reasons I love her. Many of them are expressed in letters I have written to Meghan over the years. I thought sharing a letter I wrote to Meghan on November 28, 2005 might help you get to know her a little bit.


Meghan, my love,

I know I’ve told you over the past few days how much joy you bring me and the reasons why, but I want to communicate these things in writing so you can be reminded again of God’s grace in your life. These things need to go down in writing! I will never tire of pointing out the grace of God at work in you; his grace shines brightly from your life and I enjoy having the privilege of pointing out the obvious.

Meghan, you are one of the most gifted people I know – unusually gifted academically and unusually gifted athletically, and you are a very disciplined person to top it all off. I know that you truly could have advanced in any career you wanted to. I know you could be successfully competing in marathons to this day and would be approaching your prime years as an athlete.

That is why few things in life amaze me more than the choice you have made to walk away from all that you could have been to devote your life to helping me accomplish my dreams and making me a success. This is why you bring me so much joy everyday. No one else supports me the way you do; no one cares for me spiritually or physically the way you do. Your joyful support of me and your practice of biblical womanhood is a legacy that I believe will be remembered by our kids and our grandkids and others long after we are gone.

Thanks for having the passions that you do. Thanks for being committed to the tasks of motherhood and not despising the call of God on your life in this season. When I see you changing diapers and preparing meals and buying groceries and folding laundry, I often find my heart flooded with joy and gratitude to God. Your life brings me so much joy! I find myself at a loss for words when I try to thank God for you; I simply cannot thank him enough for your life.

When I think, “Where do I currently see the gospel bearing fruit and growing?” The first place my mind goes is to your life. I can’t believe that even in the midst of being a mother of 2 young boys, you have maintained your Bible–reading plan the way you have and continue to pursue growth in godliness with such exemplary diligence. This degree of commitment to God and his Word is truly rare; I am blessed to have your example and to be able to observe your love for God.

One of the areas of your life I am most excited about is how seriously you take your sin. This past week there have been several times that you have confessed sin to me – sin that I was unaware of – and you did so on your own initiative. This is one of the clearest evidences of humility imaginable. Thank you for keeping such a close watch on your life.

I love you and I’m so happy to be married to you. You are way out of my league and I thank God I get to walk through life with you by my side. It is ironic that the one with greater gifting is called to support the one with lesser gifting, and the one with lesser godliness is called to lead the one with greater godliness.

Your example and your care are irreplaceable. I love you with all my heart.

Yours forever,
Jared.