{"id":56528,"date":"1997-05-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1997-05-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/surprise-proposal\/"},"modified":"1997-05-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1997-05-01T00:00:00","slug":"surprise-proposal","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/surprise-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our daughter, Julie, met a young man, Mark, while they were working on a ranch in Colorado. After Julie came home, Mark decided to pursue the relationship and came to visit her.<\/p>\n\t\t<p>Our pastor, while greeting visitors from the pulpit, welcomed the young man who was &quot;Julie&#39;s future husband.&quot; Embarrassed, Julie leaned over and whispered, &quot;I&#39;m sorry, Mark.&quot;<\/p>\n\t\t<p>Mark whispered back, &quot;Why?&quot;<\/p>\n\t\t<p>She replied, &quot;Because, you&#39;ve never asked me to marry you.&quot;<\/p>\n\t\t<p>He said, &quot;Will you?&quot;<\/p>\n\t\t<p>She said, &quot;Yes,&quot; and suddenly they were engaged.<\/p>\n\t\t<p>They were married in that same church.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[406,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3704,4197,4425,4694,5270],"tax_ctp_topics":[378,390],"class_list":["post-56528","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-courtship","tax_ctp_tags-husbands-wives","tax_ctp_tags-marriage","tax_ctp_tags-premarital-counseling","tax_ctp_tags-weddings"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Surprise Proposal - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/surprise-proposal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Surprise Proposal - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our daughter, Julie, met a young man, Mark, while they were working on a ranch in Colorado. 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