Kim and Jon Stockton: sometimes love is a slippery slope

Vibrant Life, July-August, 2004 by Pam Mellskog

Modern Christian couples may overlook the mystery of Adam's rib. Yet the blessing and practicality of Genesis 2:18--"The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him'"--remain relevant today.

Jon Stockton would agree, although his dream girl and picture of paradise differs from Eve and the Garden of Eden.

"I was looking for a good Christian girl who could snowboard with me," says Jon, 31. He found Kim Snyder, 25, at a Christmas party and married her two years later because, he discovered, she enriched his life in more ways than one.

Besides being an accomplished athlete in everything from snowboarding to whitewater rafting to gymnastics, she was willing to take up his semi-nomadic lifestyle. For 12 years now, Jon has flip-flopped between supervising the snowboarding and skiing school at Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado's Summit County in the winter and leading white water rafting trips at Noah's Ark down the Arkansas River a few counties south during the summer. As a junior staff member, Kim reports to him at both recreation centers. "He's not a bad boss," she states with a smile.

But this couple's compatibility goes deeper than sports and work. "The most important thing is that we have the spiritual connection, which is why we're together," Jon explained.

Kim admitted she was hoping to meet someone "adventurous and athletic." But like Jon, the real dealmaker was spiritual compatibility which, for them, revolves around accountability. "We have a place where we have the freedom to ask how we're doing (spiritually) and not to make it seem like everything's perfect. It's not," she explains. They also periodically take time to pray together.

Both have found ways to grow solo, too.

Kim needs plenty of quiet time alone with God. Jon, meanwhile, won't miss his 6:00 a.m. Tuesday men's accountability group at a card just down the road from Copper Mountain in Frisco, Colorado. Some members are coworkers; men on ski patrol and instructors who start the workday with him at 7:30 a.m. "Even though I see the same guys all the time during the week, this is different. We can talk about all the issues relevant to singles and marrieds," he explains.

However earnest they are in following Christ when apart and together, the couple's relationship from the start has been anything but stuffy.

"She was funny, and we were both goofy," Jon recalls. "That first night I think we were both thinking, 'I don't know if I can talk seriously with this person.'" That lightheartedness has lived on in their marriage.

In reality, both Kim and Jon are models of good health people who, every day, get plenty of exercise, sunshine, and fresh air, and can eat as they please because of living such active lives. They're even planning on launching their own extreme sports camp at some point down the road.

How did they get motivated? "God's given me the gifts that I have to do this stuff," says Jon. "I've never really thought about it much. It's what I enjoy doing."

Kim insists she feels the same way and suspects health might be contagious. "I think they're linked," she states. "When you feel good spiritually, you take care of yourself more."

Pam Mellskog is a freelance writer based in Boulder, Colorado.