Not a wedding blog, mind you. (Though self-admittedly, I adore those and could spend hours there as well - so many colors, decorations, adorable photos, and creative ideas out there to be noticed and appropriated, especially since I finally have a legitimate reason to do so...)
But this is no such collection. This blog is about marriage. Every day of it. The good, the bad, the lovely, the difficult, the exasperating, the silly, boring, the not-as-happily-ever-after-as-we-thought times. I could spend awhile going into everything this adorable and very godly husband and wife said that challenged/inspired/encouraged me, or everything in the past couple weeks that led up to my needing to read something like that... but I'll save that. I realized something in reading their story. And in seeing their ultimate goal (though no one is perfect) in attempting to make their marriage about God's love - and their wedding, too.
I am not one of those people who want to run off one day in a fairly ordinary dress with a fiancé and 10 close friends and tie the knot and move on. (I have quite a bit of admiration for those people, and appreciate the creative alternatives people are always coming up with to break the norm. Case in point: aforementioned blogger couple. We'll call them A.B.C. for short.) However, that has not ever been me. I have a bit too much fairy-tale-princess in me, a little too much appreciation for tradition perhaps, to be one of those couples. But I also have seen one too many episodes of "Say Yes to the Dress."
I do want my wedding to be a big deal, but I do not want it to turn into an ordeal. I do want the white dress, the church, the showers, the parties, the reception, the decorations, the photos, etc etc... (insert pretty typical southern wedding image here.)
But as I have realized lately, and as I realized once again after reading the reasons A.B.C. decided to do things differently, we far too often make so much of a big deal about the wedding, that we forget to think about what happens after those 24 hours are up. If I have learned/am learning anything through this process of falling in love and being engaged, (trust me: relationships = lots of learning), it's that love is not a feeling; it's a choice. (Side-note: I feel like I'm plagiarizing by even saying that right now, as I am not really there yet and I have little concept of everything that phrase really means). To a very, very small extent, I am starting to realize it. And judging by the fact that up until tonight, the last few conversations remotely related to the wedding and/or marriage were quite superficial and ended in much misunderstanding and unnecessary frustration, I still have a long way to go.
I could write for days on everything God is currently trying to teach me about real love, real sacrifice, and real commitment. (Things which I am very good at coming up with "reasonable", "logical" excuses to not do.) Suffice it to say, friends, when it gets to that crazy pre-wedding time, and I am threatening to become a much-tamer-but-still-quite-ridiculous form of bridezilla... you have full permission to smack me back into place, and remind me that it's not about fancy things, or more things, or perfect things, or really even things at all.
For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother, and be united with his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. --Genesis 2:24
Then Isaac took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. --Genesis 24:67
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