Posted on Mar 29, 2006 | by Tim Ellsworth

EDITORS' NOTE: BP Sports columnist Tim Ellsworth recently visited Florida to do a series of stories on spring training as baseball players get ready to begin a new season.


KISSIMMEE, Fla. (BP)--Atlanta Braves pitcher Blaine Boyer has known for a long time what he wanted in a wife.

He wanted someone with spunk. He wanted someone who is fun-loving and easygoing. He wanted someone devoted to Christ.

Late last season Boyer was still looking for her.

“I know God’s got her out there, and I pray for her all the time, wherever she may be,” Boyer said last August.

During the off season, God answered Boyer’s prayers. In November, he and his fiancee, Ginsey Paulk, will marry.

“She fits the bill,” Boyer said. “Everything I’ve ever said I ever wanted in a girl, it’s perfect. Of course she has her faults, but I love them. We all do. She will push me. She will stand on her own two feet. She loves the Lord with all her heart, and that’s number one.”

Boyer and Paulk have been friends for several years. But during the winter months, the relationship developed into something more. They have a mutual friend whose mother passed away, and through that tragedy they began talking to each other to see how their friend was doing.

“One thing led to another and we started dating,” Boyer said. “One of my constant prayers was that I just wanted to know when it was the right one. I was definitely searching. But it got to the point where if it’s not on His time, I don’t want it -– and so I’m fine with not dating anybody or having a girlfriend. He’ll introduce me to her. When I came to that conclusion, He did.”

Boyer couldn’t be happier with the way God worked.

“I have never been so incredibly in love in my entire life,” he said. “She’s a blessing. We’re just living our lives together with Christ in the center of it, and it’s just unbelievable to watch Him glorify our relationship.”

Boyer said he and Paulk are going through premarital counseling. They’ve also committed to keeping themselves sexually pure until marriage.

“It’s prayer. It’s got to be constant prayer and having somebody hold you accountable,” he said. “It’s the only way it’s going to work.”
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