It Is Trish

Mike is Libby‘s husband, and their early inclusion in this series showcases how much I love them as individuals and as a couple (and why I spent so many Sundays crashing their family time).  Mike was one of my favorite people in Dallas, since we shared a love of theological conversations, video games, and writing stories.  He is a pastor whose sermons are always my favorite, he is a small group leader who values group unity and loving debate over arguing someone into the ground, he is a talented fiction writer, and he is a devoted husband and father.

In a day and age where women want to “have it all” we forget that men might want that too!  In pursuit of career success, too many men fall into a trap of believing that work is their primary identity (just as women forget that they are more than a wife or mother).  I so admire Mike for creating intentional space to be with his children and for supporting his wife’s professional aspirations.  Both Mike and Libby have roles in the home and out of it, and their co-leadership of our small group demonstrated for me just how beautiful a marriage of partnership can be.

Although he is incredibly intelligent, Mike always made me feel like my opinions were worth considering.  We occasionally disagreed about things pretty significantly, but he always valued me enough to listen and to subtly alter his opinions, just as his thoughtful critiques altered mine.  And sometimes!  Sometimes he really latched onto something that I value highly, and I will forever scream about how he is the ONLY pastor I know to preach about singleness from the pulpit in a way that actually appreciated and uplifted singleness as its own thing, and not as a stepping stone to marriage.

Someday he’s going to be a husband/father/pastor/YA author, the combination of which definitely makes him a man who is #morethan.