On June 1, one year
after our wedding day, John and I renewed our vows.
To some this may sound strange. Normally vow renewals happen 10, 20, 50 years
after a marriage…but looking back on the craziness of our first year, we felt
that repeating the promises we made to each other on the day of our wedding was
fitting.
And so, gathered in our backyard with a few close family and
friends, we re-stated our commitment to one another:
I John take you
Kaitlin to be my lawfully wedded wife
You are my best
friend, and it is my delight to marry you today.
I promise to love you
steadily when things get hard, and that my commitment today will not be swayed
by future circumstances or feelings.
I promise to laugh
with you, to cry with you, and to be faithful to you until we are parted by
death; to put your needs ahead of my own, and to treat you with tenderness and
respect.
I promise to do my
best to love you and lead you as Jesus has done for the Church, to show you
grace as he has shown me grace, and to seek your good even though it may cause
me harm.
I promise to allow God
to use you in my life as He grows me into a man, strong and courageous, who
walks humbly with the Lord.
And so throughout
life, no matter what may lie ahead of us, I pledge to you my life as a loving
and faithful husband.
I Kaitlin take you
John to be my lawfully wedded husband
You are my best
friend, and it is my delight to marry you today.
I promise to love you
steadily when things get hard, and that my commitment today will not be swayed.
I promise to laugh
with you, to cry with you, and to be faithful to you until we are parted by
death; to put your needs ahead of my own, and to treat you with honor and
respect.
I promise to do my
best to love you and submit to you as the Church submits to the headship of
Christ, to show you grace as he has shown me grace, and to seek your good in
all things regardless of my circumstances or feelings.
I promise to allow God
to use you in my life as He grows me into a woman of noble character, adorned
with good works.
And so, no matter what
may lie ahead of us, I pledge to you my life as an obedient and faithful wife.
When we said these vows originally, we had no idea what our “future circumstances” would look like. In the bliss of our wedding day, we were not
thinking of the hardships that we would face just three months down the
road…not considering the fact that many of the hopes and dreams for our future
together would be dramatically shifted while we were still just newlyweds.
We wanted to travel freely and easily. We wanted to live a
fast-paced life. We wanted to be the
perfect, beautiful, happy family that had it all together.
But that’s not what
tomorrow brought.
Although our life is not even close to what we though laid ahead
of us when said our vows, we have been continually reminded this year hat the
Lord has a plan…that He wills certain things to happen or not happen, and He
uses these circumstances to mold and shape us into disciples who bring glory to
Him.
We are reminded that our
lives are a “mist”…our marriage is a “mist”. If we are not rooted in Christ, all of this
is worthless.
Our vows are even more beautiful to me today than they were
on the day of our wedding. They have
context. They have experienced
fire. They are deeper…more real…more raw.
The Lord has been
good and faithful in producing beauty from our “tomorrow”; and I have no
doubt that He will continue to lead our marriage according to His perfect will
for as many days as He gives us together.
“…yet you do not know what
tomorrow will bring. What is your
life? For you are a mist that appears
for a little time and then vanishes.
Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will do this or that.’”
James 4:14-15
A huge thanks to Leah McEachern Photography. http://leahmceachernphotography.com/
