Today is our 10th wedding anniversary and I've been thinking a lot about our wedding and the commitment we made that day. Our wedding was very simple and pretty traditional to the Mennonite church we attended. We walked down the aisle together right at the beginning of the service and the congregation sang 2 hymns, "Father We Come" and "Holy Holy Holy". The associate pastor made a few announcements and had a short devotional. Then the congregation sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing".
One of my Mom's cousins who is a pastor gave our wedding message on Petals of Love. In a Mennonite wedding flowers are not generally permitted during the ceremony. However the pastor brought 2 flower vases with 2 roses each. He referred to the vase as our marriage and each of us as a rose. He demonstrated how we could destroy each other by pulling off petals and cutting up one of the roses. He then brought out a hammer and illustrated how the vase would be destroyed if he smashed it with the hammer (although he didn't actually break the vase). In the same way, we could destroy our marriage. He then referred to the other vase and gave us some Petals of Love: kindness, consideration for each other, gentleness, faithfulness, etc.
My uncle (also the senior pastor) married us and we walked down the aisle while the congregation sang "Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us".
There is traditionally a sit-down meal afterwards and my Mom and her sisters fixed all the food the day before the wedding. We had a Ham & Potato casserole, green beans, a jello salad, and dinner rolls along with cake, ice cream, iced tea and coffee.
At the reception we had 2 singing groups and an open microphone for anyone who wanted to share. Then my Dad gave a little speech and closed with prayer.
Some of the memories are my little brother William serving us dessert, getting up early to take pictures before the ceremony, Paul being more nervous than I was, and forgetting to give all the instructions to the reception moderator (thankfully this didn't create any food-serving problems).
The emphasis that we wanted at our wedding was that the focus be on God. The hymns we chose and the way we planned the ceremony was to draw the attention to God as the center of our lives. This is still our goal that Christ be at the center of our home.
The other focus today are the vows we made to each other 10 years ago. My desire even more today is to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part. The theme at our wedding was 1 Cor. 13. "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things; love never fails." Our relationship has grown deeper and richer and our commitment greater. Paul has truly been my provider, my companion, my beloved and my friend. These 10 years have gone by so quickly and have involved medical treatments, career changes and the birth of Zoe. But through it all we have been together. I thank God for leading us together and these years He has given us. I look forward to the next 10 years!
1 comment:
That was neat to read about your wedding ceremony. How neat to read of your marriage centered around God.
I am so glad you were able to have such a nice celebration and how it worked out to have a lot of it paid for by it being a business trip too! I loved hearing how God worked all that out.
Karis
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