Saturday I got to meet Kirk Cameron. I can't believe I can write this and it actually have truth to it. I am still on a high from the event so I have to blog about it....bare with me.
Kirk Cameron came to Marietta to speak on "How to Fireproof Your Marriage". My sweet husband bought me tickets for this event back in April. He even sprung for the VIP seats. I can't tell you how excited I was. This is the best gift Greg's ever given me, coming in 2nd only to getting engaged. (I say this because I consider Kirsten our gift from God)
Let's go back to the mid 80's... I was about 10 or 11 years old. I had no real interest in boys and hadn't reached the stage to where they were attractive to me. This was, until Growing Pains came on TV. To me, Kirk Cameron was not just a boy, he was The Boy. The one all other boys should try to be. His curly mullet and dreamy eyes were perfectly placed on his head and face. My mom probably bought me every Tiger Beat, Teen Beat and Bop magazine that came out with him on the cover. I sent in my $10 to his fan club with a letter claiming that I was his biggest fan. I of course didn't let them know that I was "madly in love" with him because I didn't want to come across as forward. Bop let me know that he wanted a girl that loved him for the person he was on the inside, not because he played Mike Seaver. In return for my $10, I got a thank you letter with Kirk's stamped signature, a centerfold sized poster with a complete background on him to tell me anything they thought I should ever want to know about him. You know, the important stuff like... his favorite color, his height and weight and his favorite food. His posters covered my walls and ceiling like wall paper and paint. I knew that one day I would marry him. I knew this because I would pray for this every night.
I was about 13 or so when the mad crush came to an end. Tiger Beat let me know that Kirk had fallen in love with his co-star, Chelsea Noble, and that they got married. What a way to break up a relationship... by reading it in a magazine. I was happy for him that he was happy, and this way I wouldn't have to tell him that he had been replaced on most of my walls with Jordan Knight and other New Kids on the Block.
I must have shared my Kirk Cameron era with Greg at some point...probably when we watched Fireproof. The movie touched us, as it did many, and taught us a lot about our relationship and our marriage. When Greg heard Kirk was coming to speak on how to Fireproof Your Marriage he was excited to go, and knew I would be too.
Last Friday night it hit me that I was going to get to see Kirk Cameron in person. God was going to give me a blessing, through my husband, to meet the man I thought was "the one" for me, and just rejoice in the fact that he wasn't. I was so extremely excited. When we got to the venue, I realized that Greg and I appeared to be one of the youngest couples there. When Kirk was announced, and came on stage, he received a standing ovation. From the second you saw him, you could tell he was serious and passionate about the message he was about to deliver. In person, he didn't look a day older than he did on Growing Pains. He still has the same sparkly eyes and adorable crooked smile. His skin is flawless and he's just precious. It wasn't his star status at all that gave off this attraction. Honestly, the men would say the exact same thing. It was this glow about him that immediately you knew this was a man whose heart is on fire for God. He did make light of the fact that he was a child star, and he "fed our Seaver fever", as he would say, for a minute. There were lots of camera flashes (and not all mine) in the beginning. It was amazing how in only a few seconds God transformed him from this teen heartthrob to a humble vessel.
Kirk impressed me by how deep in the Word he got with his message. You could tell he dwells in God's Word. He is so in love with God and his wife, Chelsea. It was so awesome how he took specific scenes in Fireproof and explained everything about them. He would go into detail about the message each character was trying to relay, through their words and body language. He would parallel this description with what the Bible says. I could go on and on about how great he was and how he brought things to our attention that we would have never thought of ourselves. I left wanting to be a new wife to Greg, and appreciating things about Greg I never thought to appreciate before. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful man for a husband and partner.
After the conference, Kirk stayed around to sign autographs and copies of his book. As we were waiting in line, Greg and I were talking about what I should say to him when I got to the table. I thought about telling him that when I was eleven the color of my room was Kirk Cameron. Then I thought, no, that's dorky. I decided that I wanted to tell him how much admiration I had for him now, and I am so proud of how he's become such a man of God. How he inspired me to go study God's Word at a much deeper level, and I wanted to be a better wife and mother. Then it was my turn. We fumbled with the cameras for what seemed like 10 minutes...how embarrassing. Then Kirk looked at me with those soothing eyes and in the sincerest, softest voice he said, "Hi, how are you?" "What's your name?" I responded with, "You're really great." He smiled, signed my book, posed for a picture and that was about it. Life changing, huh? Whatever... since I couldn't figure out what my name was, I didn't tell him. So, at least he won't know who the star struck fanatic was that couldn't answer a few very simple questions. After all, he is totally going to remember that and me, right?
His book is good, by the way. It's not a Francine Rivers novel, but it is him trying to share his testimony and how he came to know the LORD. It's a way for others to come to know Christ if they don't already, and it's an explanation of how knowing Christ can not only save you, but will change your life.
