Friday, October 26, 2012

The Beauty of Marriage

As many of you know, I am nearly three weeks into my newest season of life-the season of life where two lives become one life.  Until Seth and I were engaged, I had never thought in depth much about marriage.  I knew I desired to be a part of the covenant of marriage, and I knew I loved Seth and that he was the person God had designed for me. I knew that he was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with even through whatever challenges we might face, and I even knew I would have to abandon some of my own dreams..  But until we were engaged- promised to be married to one another- I had not thought much else about the subject of Marriage.   I cannot begin to describe how beautiful marriage is.  A beautiful covenant between a man and a woman symbolic of the covenant between Christ and the Church.

Marriage is no longer just a promise I made to spend the rest of my life with somebody, nor is it the covenant I am to enter  into before I can have sex without sinning against God or myself.   Marriage is the abandoning of my old and selfish ways and walking with Seth creating a new way.  If that is not a beautiful picture of the gospel, then I don't know what is.   I now understand the intimacy God desires to have with me.  The intimacy of me seeking Him with my every thought and move.   Because I am now one with Seth, every decision I make I think of him because my decisions affect him. I now ask him or at least tell him before I go have lunch with a friend. I seek his opinion before I go run with a new group or help in a ministry or spend a few dollars on this new article of clothing.  He isn't just my partner, he is my life. We are ONE in flesh.  I can go to Seth with my thoughts and struggles and not have the fear of him condemning me or judging me, but have the joy knowing he will hurt with me, love me, and pray for me. And that's how our relationship with God should be.  He hurts with us. He loves us. He forgives us.  He wants us to come to Him with our every need because He is the ultimate provider and healer.   And while marriage has shown me the kind of relationship God desires with me, I know Seth will fail me but God never will.   Seth will fail me and I will fail him, but because of God's love for us, we know how to forgive each other.  God has grace and mercy on us over and over again.  And there again, mine and Seth's marriage will constantly consists of us pouring love and grace and mercy on one another when we mess up- when I don't get his shirt washed for church on Sunday or I forget to pick up milk for his cereal or when he hurts my feelings with that comment that's supposed to be joking but I take it seriously.  And Praise God! Oh Praise God because we have both experienced His love and mercy!  And we have the Holy Spirit to guide us in our marriage- to allow us the have love and grace and mercy on one another because we can't have do this alone. We need the Helper.   Without God we wouldn't know how to love-not through the trials that we know we will go through together.

So today, I am thanking God for this gift.  I also thank Him for the most beautiful, wise, and Godly counselors in our life.  Seth and I have so many loving couples in our life that have poured out love and prayers on us as we have entered into this season of life.  As a result of "The Blessing",we were able to begin our marriage with truth.  And thank you to my Aunt Sandi and Uncle Weyman for giving us the advice to "abandon our old lives and create one new life together".   And just like as followers of Christ, we are dead to our old lives without Christ and born again to a new life with Christ living inside of us.   It's a beautiful picture.  Absolutely beautiful.  Marriage and the Gospel. :)


"For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace."  John 1:16

"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." Psalm 103:8




Monday, October 1, 2012

And As For Me It's Finally Real.

How long have I been dreaming? Who forgot to wake, to wake me up?
I know it sounds crazy but daddy now I think I’m in love
Cause when he steps in the room my heart begins to pound

You said, “Never settle,” you promised there was one out there for me
It’s true, I might have doubted but he’s standing here and now I believe
Yes, I know you’ll be proud of the man that chose me

It’s elementary to the wise, for the fool in full disguise
Beggars bow and poets kneel, and as for me… it’s finally real

I will always love you and I will always be your little girl
None could come between us, you’ll forever be the first man in my world
But when he smiles I can see how much he reminds me of you
A man of faith, a man of strength, who loves me like you do

It’s all the time I’ve spent in tears, worth the heartache, worth the fears
To stand beside him on this day after you give me away

How long have I been sleeping? Who forgot to wake, to wake me up?
Daddy, he’s amazing, he’s everything that I’ve been dreaming of

And now he has become my very best friend

- Kendall Payne, "Daddy" 



I was 19 the first time I listened to the lyrics of the song "Daddy" by Kendall Payne.  My heart had been broken- I'd been rejected, and my best friend and I were riding down the rode. She was encouraging me, and along with Reliant K's "Let It All Out", we listened to Kendall Payne's album "Paperskin." On that day, the song "Daddy" was my encouragement not to settle.  I knew I wanted to be able to sing the words of the song one day and mean them, and the boys I had been dating were not men of faith nor strength.  They didn't love me because if they did they wouldn't hurt me or reject me.  I spent a lot of time in tears and a lot of time in fear doubting I would find "the one"- the one I would call my best friend.  At times I thought I'd be better off just settling.  And I'm so thankful I didn't. I'm so thankful God gave me the desire and strength to wait. To wait for him. To wait for Seth Davis Richardson.

The song above is written to Daddy. As many of you know my parents have only recently began to commit their life to the Lord. What a joy and great challenge it is to know that my life and mine and Seth's relationship have been light of Jesus Christ unto their lives.  So for me my earthly Daddy is the man who will give me away on Sunday. He was the first man in my world, and I will always be his little girl. However, my Heavenly Father above is the one who has told me not to settle- the One who promised a good and perfect plan for my life.  My Heavenly Daddy is the one who told me what my husband should be- a man who seeks after Him, a man who loves and respects his wife, a man of faith trusting in God, living and walking with Him.

 It’s elementary to the wise, for the fool in full disguise
Beggars bow and poets kneel, and as for me… it’s finally real

On June 17, 2011 I went on my first date with the man I would sing this song about. And on October 7, 2012, only 6 days away, I will walk down the aisle. My daddy will give me away. And I will become one with my best friend.  Oh what overwhelming joy to be able to marry a man that will put the Lord first in his life with me only being second to Christ.  My dream- my dream of the one who will complete me- is real!  Praise the Lord! Praise Him for His beautiful promise.

Praise Him because He is the one that said "It is not good for man to be alone" in Genesis Chapter 2!  Praise Him for sending His Son to earth to become a sacrifice for us and shed his perfect blood to cover up all our sins!   And Praise Him because in 6 days, Seth and I will enter into the Holy Covenant of Marriage!   Marriage- symbolic of what the relationship between the church and Christ is.  Oh how beautiful!  Christ loves the church with unconditional love, and the church submits to Christ with honor and respect because He is Holy!  We, the church, fail Christ and He forgives and loves unconditionally.  Oh how I pray Seth and I will have a marriage that will glorify God- a marriage that will show the world a glimpse of God's love for us, a glimpse of the intimate relationship we should have with Christ.

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come; and his Bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure."  -Revelation 19:6b-8a

In 6 days, I will clothe myself with a dress made of fine linen, bright and pure. I will walk down an aisle, and commit myself to loving Seth Davis Richardson unconditionally until death do we part.  I choose to love him, to encourage him, and to walk with him as one flesh following after the King of All Kings, the Lord of all Lords, a Savior worthy of all our praise.  I will choose to abandon my old self and we will become ONE.   And that is beautiful. That is a dream come true.