September 24, 2010
Father in Heaven, thank you for this husband Zach, and wife, Ashley, and their commitment to Christian marriage. As we look ahead, we pray that their future will never lack the convictions that make a marriage strong.
Bless this husband, Zach. Bless him as provider and protector. Sustain him in all the pressures that come with the task of stewarding a family. May his strength be his wife’s boast and pride, and may he so live that his wife may find in him the haven for which the heart of a woman truly longs.
Bless this wife, Ashley. Give her a tenderness that makes her great, a deep sense of understanding, and a strong faith in You. Give her that inner beauty of soul that never fades, that eternal youth that is found in holding fast to the things that never age. May she so live that her husband may be pleased to reverence her in the shrine of his heart.
Teach them that marriage is not living for each other. It is two people uniting and joining hands to serve You. Give them a great spiritual purpose in life. May they seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness, knowing that You will sustain them through all of life’s challenges.
May they minimize each other’s weaknesses and be swift to praise and magnify each other’s strengths so that they might view each other through a lover’s kind and patient eyes. Help them every day to be kind and gentle, more like Thee. Give them a little something to forgive each day, that their love might learn to be long-suffering.
Bless them and develop their characters as they walk together with You. Give them enough hurts to keep them humane, enough failures to keep their hands clenched tightly in Yours, and enough of success to make them sure they walk with You throughout all of their life.
May they never take each other’s love for granted but always experience that breathless wonder that exclaims. “Out of all this world, you have chosen me.” Then, when life is done and the sun is setting, may they be found then as now, still hand in hand, still very proud, still thanking You for each other.
May they travel together as friends and lovers, brother and sister, husband and wife, father and mother, and as servants of Christ until He shall return or until that day when one shall lay the other into the arms of God. This we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, the great lover of our souls. Amen.
I leave you with this:
[photo courtesy http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/9043-begin-to-hope.jpg]"This is how it works:
you're young until you're not;
you love until you don't;
you try until you can't;
you laugh until you cry;
you cry until you laugh,
and everyone must breathe until their dying breath.
No, this is how it works:
you peer inside yourself,
you take the things you like
and try to love the things you took,
and then you take that love you made,
and stick it into some, someone else's heart,
pumping someone else's blood,
and walking arm in arm,
you hope it don't get harmed,
but even if it does,
you'll just do it all again..."
-"On the Radio"
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