Life Blessons: wedding

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Remembering Our Wedding Vows

In light of our one-year of marriage (and looking forward to so many more to come!!), I pulled up a copy of our wedding vows and the sermon our friend and pastor preached on our wedding day when he officiated for us. And it was such a good reminder of what marriage is really all about.

Here's an excerpt from Dave's sermon from our wedding day, July 10, 2009:

" Michael and Carmen come to this ceremony today prepared to make some promises—vows—to each other. This is a “covenant”: One vows to keep their end of the agreement, even if the other fails to keep their end of the agreement.

In your vows, you’re not saying one thing: better; richer; health. You’re saying two things: better or worse; richer or poorer; health or sickness.

May God give you the strength and the love to keep these promises at those times when you don’t want to, and it seems like it would be easier to break them. Make no mistake marriage is not always easy. However, marriage has many joys!

Marriage is:

Companionship in all of life’s paths

Shared goals for happiness, family

Unconditional support in good times and bad

Knowing that two can do more than one

Having someone to encourage you in the valleys of life

Writing a story for your friends to read

As we close, I want to briefly look at why God designed marriage like He did:

It is because he is so interested in YOU knowing how much He loves you that He was not content about being a big ‘ol invisible, intangible God out there in the universe that you only experience when you see a cool cloud arrangement in the sky with the sun shining through it…

The best way to describe it is this… Michael, He wants Carmen to know His physical, tangible, in-her-presence love so much that he is putting you in her life as an instrument, a channel, to reflect it…to lay your life down for her whether you think she deserves it or not because that is what Christ did for her…that’s how much He loves Carmen. Carmen, He wants Michael to know His physical, tangible, in-his-presence love so much that he is putting you in his life as an instrument, a channel, to reflect it…because that is what Christ did for him…that’s how much He loves Michael.

That is a huge responsibility. But wouldn't you want to be the recipient off that love?! That is the ideal and the target for marriage. This concept changes everything because it’s not about you…it’s about the love that God has for you both.

As followers of Christ you need conduct your marriage in the shadow of a cross, with the knowledge that He died for us. And if you truly want to say thank you to Him, then He wants you to go home and channel all that gratitude in the eye and heart of each other."

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Celebrating Our 1-Year Wedding Anniversary

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Celebrating Our 1-Year Wedding Anniversary

Down here in Atlanta, the day started off with rain, which was especially fitting. Today was our one-year wedding anniversary.

A year ago, a single day on the calendar was transformed and would never be the same again. It was our wedding day. On that day, July 10th, the heavens opened up and rain started splattering the ground. And yet, there were more important things about to take place than sunshine or rain.

Once the sudden storm passed by and we moved the wedding vows indoors from the puddles and mud, Michael and I got to become husband and wife and begin our marriage together. From that first unexpected change-of-plans, our marriage has been watered and taken root.

It's hard to believe that a year has gone by; sometimes imagining it's been much longer than that, and at other times wondering where it all went.

Today, in celebration of the past 365 days, we woke up and went out to enjoy the day, despite the gloomy skies and looming rain that threatened, a mindset we're trying to live out daily in our marriage.

We drove down to the farmer's market and, with my own sweet by my side, we picked out some new sweet potatoes. A symbolic way to kick off the next 365 days, no? And by this time, the clouds had been carefully tucked away and azure spread all around.

Continuing on the theme of looking back in time fondly, we went to a natural history museum later in the afternoon, where we browsed through art and artifacts (and even musical instruments) of the Incas and Mayans and other early South- and Central-Americans. We saw a mummy the size of a 10-year-old and delicate Indian jewelry. We learned about Roman sculpture and meandered the grounds surrounding the museum, where I got to see my first sunflowers of the season standing tall against the sky.

Afterward, at a nearby coffee shop, we took a moment to reminisce over our first year together and talk about what we've learned, what we're thankful for and what we look forward to from this next year. A simple celebration, but that's us. That's what we're happiest with. Each other.

Happy anniversary, Michael. I love you!