After 6 years of dating, Josh and Bree got married last Saturday. It was a gorgeous Fall day with all the excitement of their wedding ceremony taking place in a beautiful cathedral nestled in the confines of a revered college campus.
The gathered well wishers – including 235 friends and family and a jaunty priest sporting a delightful sense of humor – were mightily honored to share Josh and Bree’s first precious moments of marriage with them.
And share them they did. They laughed, they cried, they clapped, they gasped – and that was during the processional!
These moments, the first of many that Josh and Bree will spend together as a married couple, were only the first of many feelings they will share throughout their hopefully long life together as man and wife. In addition to this new beginning that began with laughter and joy, surprise and encouragement, they will most certainly face issues that will discourage, paralyze, disappoint, and anger them.
It will be at those moments, when negative emotions push them apart, attempting to silence their love for each other, that Josh and Bree will most need to reach past their personal feelings about a situation and instead reach out to each other and work – hard, at times – to communicate, understand, and forgive in order to restore the unity in their relationship.
It was all there last Saturday. . .in the tears of joy Josh wiped away as his beautiful bride approached him at the altar, in the happy smiles of their approving parents, in the giggling flower girls, in the laser-focused homily of the priest, and in the confident vows Josh and Bree publicly exchanged for all to witness.
At that moment in time, at the beginning of their new life together, Josh and Bree promised to always put their relationship first. Before their jobs, before their extended families, before their lists of things to do, and before their hoped-for children. Their promise before God was all about their relationship – to make each other their number one priority.
It’s His greatest desire for their marriage. And it’s all right there in the wedding ceremony.