When Katie started dating Scott, she wasn’t concerned with learning about his home life, hobbies or job. She was just nervous to hold his hand.
“I remember freaking out about that,” Katie said. “Then once we did hold hands, I realized, ‘Oh yeah, I’m done for. This feels right.’”
Katie was nervous to hold hands with Scott because she’d known him for five years—they were best friends—and she didn’t know how the change in relationship would affect them.
The couple met playing sand volleyball in 2007. Katie said she would have been thrilled to date Scott then, but at the time he didn’t feel the same, viewing Katie as just a friend. It wasn’t until 2012 that Scott began to consider the possibility of pursuing Katie.
“It was really more of a conscious decision,” Scott said. “When we were sitting at coffee one day, I just said, ‘I think we’d be fools if we didn’t try to date.’”
They tried, and it worked. Scott and Katie dated until June 2013 when Scott proposed, and the best friends were married two months later.
The Millers’ path to marriage was a unique one, but the Lord used it to bless them in areas where they needed to experience growth.
“I needed to learn how to trust Scott. And being friends with him first really allowed me to do that because I’d seen him through some pretty high highs and some pretty low lows,” Katie said. “Just by watching from the outside as his friend, I got to know him, and I got to trust him first before we dated. That part was really helpful in going into marriage because I didn’t doubt the decisions he would make for our family.”
As a woman in her late 20s, Katie struggled for years with not being married. It was heart-rending for Katie to watch all her friends get engaged while she remained single. But looking back, she said, “I wouldn’t give up having been single in my 20s for anything. I learned so much about who I was and who the Lord was. And I know it’s hard to hear the words ‘His timing is perfect’ when you don’t know the future, but He is good. I know the Lord allowed me to do something with that time and didn’t let it hinder me. I feel like I got the best of both worlds.”
Katie was able to share her experience with other single women, especially those in her Home Group. Scott and Katie each led a Home Group before they dated and enjoyed doing activities and serving together as brother/sister groups. Their groups watched Scott and Katie’s relationship progress from friends to dating to engaged, providing continual, healthy accountability. In fact, the groups got along so well that they decided to merge them around the same time the Millers got married.
Combining Home Groups allowed for men and women within the groups to spring up as leaders and learn from one another. However, just as Scott and Katie settled into marriage and leading their newly-merged Home Group, they were thrown a curveball.
“One Friday afternoon when Katie was home alone, some guy attempted to break into the apartment,” Scott said. “She yelled, and he ran.”
The Millers decided to move in January 2014. Though they were farther away from their Home Group, Scott and Katie continued to serve as leaders until July 2014, when they were thrown another curveball: Scott’s job asked him to move to London.
The Millers prayed for the Lord’s guidance and felt called to move, especially when they found an Acts 29 church located just ten minutes away from Scott’s office. They realized that God is not contained in Dallas but with them everywhere they go.
Scott and Katie began releasing their responsibilities in preparation to move in January 2015, which included stepping down from their Home Group leadership, Katie’s job and other serving commitments.
As they began to look back on their lives, they noticed a pattern. Each time God took something away, He provided something else.
Though God allowed Katie to walk through her 20s single, He gifted her with marriage to her best friend.
Though they were called to leave The Village, God led them to a sister church in London.
Though they had to leave their Home Group, they watched friends they had mentored step up to lead in their place.
“Throughout our circumstances, the Lord is good, not in spite of our circumstances,” Scott said.
Scott and Katie carry this trust forward with them. Even in going through the heartbreak of a miscarriage last year, they declare that second by second, the Lord is good.
“Life changes,” Scott said. “But despite all the change going on, there is a Constant. If you put your hope in anything, whether it’s where you live or what you do, it can be ripped away. But the Lord is our Rock.”
Every day, Scott and Katie live out Elevation Worship’s lyrics: “I will look back and see that You are faithful / I look ahead, believing You are able.” They have put their hope in the Lord and have witnessed His sovereignty.
“I don’t just ‘feel’ the Lord is good; I know He is,” Katie says. “When I think of the future, I have this expectant feeling of ‘the Lord’s gonna move, and we’re gonna get to see it.’ I can’t wait for that.”