Welcome
We are Mark and Traci Neyland, joyfully married since 2001, and we owe it all to a Bible-based mystery that reveals how to build true Romance during “such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).
God calls this mystery a “great mystery,” a phrase used only one time in all of the Bible (Ephesians 5:32).
When a man pursues his bride (a woman) as the Lord Jesus Christ pursues His Bride (that’s us), the tangible embodies the eternal as the eternal empowers the tangible.
Our book the Beautiful Parallel unveils this “great mystery.”
Five parallel stages forge the blueprints that a man and woman need to build a relationship that prevails, even as He did, over the enemies of Romance:
His Love
is the Source of Romance, that pursues Her Trust by making the first move to prove to her how exclusively valuable she is to him.
Her Trust
is the Potential for Romance, because only Her Trust allows for the sincere exchange of Intimate Talk.
Intimate Talk
is the Life of Romance, where the ongoing sharing of secret hopes and dreams intertwines them with an internal Cohesion.
Cohesion
is the Strength of Romance, deeply infused enough to keep a Marriage intact.
Marriage
is the Fulfillment of Romance, when their inward oneness consummates into their own outward oneness; to dance freely, joyfully, unashamedly, and without reservation.
At one time, we were nothing more than faraway strangers. I was living in Seattle. She was living in San Antonio. But even while we were in two different time zones, God began syncing up our lives.
I was reading His Word and the parable of the search for a precious pearl (Matthew 13:46), when God told me to relocate, and pursue my own pearl at a certain church in San Antonio.
So, on September 10, 2000, I packed my car to pursue a perfect stranger.
Soon afterwards, I noticed her, and was freight-train struck with her beauty, and ultimately won over by her kindness toward others.
As the first hour of conversation grew into several, she showed me a one-time prayer-letter she had written, to express her heart’s desire — for God to send her the right man.
The date she had penned on her letter was the same day I had packed my car, from over 2,000 miles away, for the road trip that would change our lives forever.
On December 22, 2001, I married the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
God has given us two precocious boys, a keenly articulate girl, and a skill set for conquering sleep-loss that involves hoisting morning coffee.
A family is a happier crew when the man and woman build on what God calls the “great mystery.”
mark@markandtraci.com ©2024
markandtraci
