September 25, 2006
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My precious and beloved wife already mentioned that the wedding went really well. I thought someone might be interested in the pastoral charge I gave to the couple, so here it is:
Joshua
& Jessica, you are about to enter into one of the most awesome
adventures that will ever happen to you. If you do it right, marriage
will be one of the greatest experiences that will ever happen to you.
But if you do it wrong, there are few things more miserable.There
are a lot of ingredients to a great marriage, but most of them come
back to one word – commitment. Commitment to each other,
to your relationship,
to love and
forgiveness, and
to the Lord Jesus.Today
you’ll take vows that include the words, “as long as you both shall
live” and “as long as we both shall live”. Those are solemn
promises not to be taken lightly. You promise today before God that
you will remain committed and true to each other no matter what the
storms of life throw at you. No matter how unbearable and unlovable
your spouse becomes, you vow before God to stay together and to
choose to love each other.Maybe
the main reason that the Lord planned marriage this way is because it
is a picture of His relationship with His people. When we’ve trusted
Jesus to be our Savior, He promises to never leave us nor forsake us.
That’s awesome!No
one has the power to love like this on his own. You can only do this
in God’s strength. That’s why you need to walk in submission to Jesus
and live according to His Word. If you do that, your marriage can be
a phenomenally great adventure!
One of my sisters joked that she was surprised they didn’t flee out of the church when they heard that.
By popular demand by my sweetie, here are a few pictures:
Dylan with his oldest cousin Zach, the bride’s big brother
My Dad with his wife Beth
Dylan took this photo
Kaitie, Tara and cousin Amanda
My Mom and sister-in-law Kim
More kissing pictures (one of my favorite activities!)
Dyl took this picture too.
Most of the cousins
My brother Steve and me. One of us is brilliant and the other is good-looking.
The happy couple’s first dance
Tara dancing with her cousin Mike and Dyl dancing with Mike’s sister Amanda
SpiderDad and SpideyLady. I think this is the first time we’ve ever danced together!
More cuddling in the background!
Comments (9)
SOO many people get married thinking that they’ve found the person who is going to meet all their needs, and then are SOO disappointed when the other person thinks the same thing. I think it’s good you “:put the fear of God” into the couple. Better that they should find out right away because it’s hard to do it right, and so easy to do it wrong.
you’ve never danced with mom before… thats pathetic.
Great pics! Wait’ll I tell your mom I saw pictures of her on the internet.
I can’t believe you two have never danced together before. Painterman and I dance at every wedding, every party, any time there’s an oportunity.
Weddings are so happy! I like weddings. I haven’t been to one since last October, though.
SpiderDad and SpideyLady look cute together.
i wasn’t licking becky’s shoulder, my tongue wasn’t touching it. i just had my tongue out.
that’s the first time you ever danced with your wife? wow..you need to get out more. grin.
Tis the the season for weddings I guess!
The Elk was ‘shot’ up in Elk county near the Parker Dam State Park where I was this past weekend- SWEET place.
~ET
We are studying the basics. If you know anything about our church, you know we are extremely unprogrammy, which makes this focused, churchwide study somewhat unusual.
The first week we studied the love of God, and this past week we talked about what is evil. Tom had a very interesting take on the latter (according to my hubby; I was at another church and didn’t hear the message Sunday). He compared the fact that cold doesn’t exist, but is merely an absence of heat with his view that evil is an absence of goodness (God).
That book you mentioned sounds awesome. I wish I had time to read it. Maybe you could hit the highlights here?
I saw your mom last night but I was dealing with another patron on the phone and neglected to mention seeing her pics on the ‘net. Dang! I’ll have to write myself a note …
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!
(psssssst, hey Spider dude……..my hubby and I haven’t danced since our wedding either………and as of last Saturday, that was 17 years….you’re in good company……notice how i bury this fact under old posts of yours???)
*grin*