Life Long Love: Meet the Jodons
Hey Friends, this is what Life Long Love (#3L) looks like! We enjoyed how couples can forge a strong bond during difficult times as Jon and Amanda have shared with us below. Further, we think it’s terrific the way they have Face To Face T.V. in their relationship. This is a couple that is building legacy! Enjoy the interview below.
How many years have you been married and how old were you when you got married?
We’ve been married for almost 22 years. We were 24 (Jon) and 25 (Amanda) when we were married.
Where & how did the two of you meet?
We met in the cast of "The Miracle of Christmas” at Sight & Sound’s Millennium Theatre.
What first attracted you to one another?
Amanda- I thought Jon was handsome and had a great personality when he introduced himself to the rest of the cast. Also I believed the Holy Spirit told me “That’s your husband right there” as soon as I first saw him.
Jon - We had started becoming friends during the show run. I realized that I truly loved Amanda the day before Valentine’s day in 2000. Amanda came over to my little obscure apartment on Valentine’s day. We cooked dinner. That night was the first time that I told her that I loved her, and I have loved her every day since.
We all have ideas about how marriage is supposed to be when we say our wedding vows. What was one of the first challenges you encountered that challenged your ideas of what marriage was supposed to be?
We were dating when Amanda’s father died of ALS at age 49, and we were married eight months later. The grief process was especially difficult because of his young age and the ravages of that disease. Jon helped Amanda navigate the grief process well with great stability and care, but it was still a very lengthy and difficult time of grieving. There was also the challenge and pressure of helping Amanda’s mother (49yo) who suffered from some pre-exisiting mental health challenges, navigate her early widowhood, the many decisions related to managing her life-insurance windfall (as a person completely unaccustomed to handling finances,) and the adult/widow dating scene. As the only daughter in that family, and the adult child willing to assist, Amanda felt deep obligation and concern, though there was near-constant conflict. That was a weight on our very early marriage. Nevertheless, Jon supported Amanda with stability and patience. There was never a carefree “honeymoon” period (though we did have an actual honeymoon) and that was a challenge, but we don’t feel robbed because of it. We believe it helped us to grow together faster and really identify with each other more quickly.
What has helped you stay together? What's your secret?
We are committed to God, each other, and our family. We were forged in difficulty, and from very early on, we recognized that although we have plenty of people who love us, familially we have each other to actually depend on (and now our children, some of whom are adults.) Circumstances forced us to “leave and cleave” from the beginning, and we totally have each other’s back. We love each other deeply, but we are also one another’s fiercest advocate. When we have had conflict or annoyance between us, we are still most committed to God, and we believe this family was built by Him and our job is to work it out. We are VERY much thinking about our family as a thing- a legacy and something that we are building a 100-year vision for. Of course we can only control our own selves, but we can lay the best foundation we are able to give our future generations familial peace (in so much as it depends on us).
Do you pray together? Or have other faith activities?
We do pray together every night before bed, at meals, and often at other times. We have served together in various volunteer roles at church throughout our marriage. Our family is very much faith conversation based, and we are always hashing through conversations and ideas related to our Christian faith, hot topic issues, theology, how to engage current events culture, etc. This is how we roll. :)
Do you date? How do you play together? How has that changed during your years together?
We aren’t big daters. We go out on special occasions, but we mostly connect by spending time together in the evenings talking and sometimes watching something together. We just never got in the habit of going out much because for more than a decade we had either babies or toddlers and either no babysitting options or little money to spend on it. So when the children were young we just had early bedtimes and reserved the evenings for time together. Now we can walk out whenever we want, and the kids could handle their own food, but we really enjoy the time we have with everyone around the table. Now they don’t go to bed early, but they still clear out and let us have our time together while they play, game, or hang out together. We set the expectation long ago that their inter family friendship with each other are a priority, and now they go be best friends and leave us be. :)
What do you call your in-laws?
We both called our inlaws “Mom” and “Mom and Dad."
How do you KNOW your spouse loves you? How do you let your spouse know you love them?
Jon: I KNOW that Amanda loves me. It is difficult to enumerate all the ways of how I know. It is in the way she holds my hand when we walk or pray, or how she supports me in the challenges of life. Amanda’s love for me has given me courage to face things in life that I could not have faced on my own.
Amanda: Jon can’t get enough of me. :) Haha. He is a faithful and super steady person, and the ways he loves me spring from who he is. He takes care of me, he fixes things when they break (which seems like all the time??) He lets me sleep. He reads me and my needs and he tries his best to preemptively make sure I’m getting enough time alone or with friends or to do things I need to do. He encourages me to eat and rest and go get some peace and quiet out of the house when I need it. When the children were younger, he’d take all of the kids to his parents’ home in State College for the day so I could clean and organize in peace- because I enjoy doing those things and the accomplishment of having it done, but not with a circus around me. It was very sweet and it gave me the reset I needed, while getting my home in order, so I could check that box on my mental to do list. He tries to do sweet things like get me flowers, and I love the effort and thought, even if I’d rather have blueberry bush for the yard.
Share a nugget of wisdom you wish you could give to your younger selves.
Don’t be afraid of the future or of the judgment of others when it comes to having and raising children.
What do you do on a regular basis for your marriage?
We talk. And talk, and talk, and talk. Sometimes we don’t always quite follow the ins and outs of each others areas of responsibility with our work, but we talk all about it anyway. It helps us to connect and stay up to date with what pressures and obstacles each one needs to handle today, this week, this quarter, whatever. We truly believe that we are iron sharpening each other. We freely and gently challenge each other’s ideas to be sure we’re perceiving things clearly and to give ideas on how to each of us can approach important things going on for us individually or see them in a different light. It’s been encouraging to see our family culture be one of total love and support, but also one of good accountability and conversations about hard things. It’s made good fruit for us, and we hope it will continue bearing fruit in our family line. What we do on a regular basis for our marriage is the whole-hearted in commitment, the time and conversations shared, and the gentle patience we have with each other. We know each other’s character, and we like each other and actually believe the other is doing the best he/she can. That compassion and understanding for one another goes a long way.
We’ll be featuring another Life Long Love (#3L) couple next month. In the meantime, check out our shop for a rich assortment of dating ideas.
