Wedding ETA: 7 days, 5 hours, 30 minutes
# Bridesmaids down: 1
# Officiants ill: 1
# Times kids have been sick since New Year’s: 2-3 (Abrie is in the lead).
# Fires put out this week: 7
# Times I’ve asked the Lord to reign in my internal control freak: 1,223
“But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble on its own” (Matthew 6:33-34).
My prayer this morning is that I would be still and focus on Jesus, that He would quiet me with his love and fix my heart upon the unseen, eternal, spirit-formed, faith-filled path of surrender to Him. As we face obstacles, challenges and unexpected inconveniences, may we seek His wisdom. May I relinquish the perception of control and respond in ways that acknowledge God as my provider and my source joy and hope.
This wedding is not about me despite what people say. (“You’re the bride. It’s your day!”) It is not “my” day. Marriage is a work God began, and this wedding is merely its inauguration. May I step aside and let Him be the focus. It is not an excuse to appear Instagram-perfect or achieve some lofty material standard. Rather, it is an opportunity for Him to display His splendor, pointing us to His majesty and the spectacular marriage supper that is to come. Let us all hold to that image, however frail our capacity to imagine may be.
So, I pray: May the praise be Yours, Lord, for you alone are worthy of it. May the beauty, the splendor, the solemnity, the festive celebration, the joy, the mourning, the laughter, the dancing—may it all point our hearts to You and the joyous celebration we will have one day because our only true hope is in the promise of the Resurrection.
Those of us who accept that promise have been welcomed as sons of the Most High, with seats at a table we could never earn the rank to occupy. Ours is a holy office of priestly nobility. May we accept it in full humility, joyful adoration and purposeful tenacity.
While I believe all of this, I may struggle to maintain proper focus in the next 7 days. If you see me this week and I appear a stressed-out Bridezilla, please feel free to hold me accountable by asking, “Whose wedding is it, anyway?”