For Liz and Christopher

My dear friend, Lizzy, got married on Saturday. I was several thousands of miles away. But, in spirit, I was with her and Christopher. Here is my prayer for them:

Father in Heaven, thank you for this husband, Christopher, and wife, Elizabeth, and their commitment to Christian marriage. As I look ahead, I pray that their future will never lack the convictions that make a marriage strong.

Bless this husband, Christopher. Bless him as provider and protector. Sustain him in all the pressures that come with the task of stewarding a family. May his strength be his wife's boast and pride, and may he so live that his wife may find in him the haven for which the heart of a woman truly longs.

Bless this wife, Elizabeth. Give her a tenderness that makes her great, a deep sense of understanding, and a strong faith in You.Give her that inner beauty of a soul that never fades, that eternal youth that is found in holding fast to the things that never age. May she so live that her husband may be pleased to reverence her in the shrine of his heart.

Teach them that marriage is not living for each other. It is two people uniting and joining hands to serve You. Give them great spiritual purpose in life. May they seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness, knowing that You will sustain them through all of life's challenges.

May they minimize each other's weaknesses and be swift to praise and magnify each other's strengths so they might view each other through a lover's kind and patient eyes. Help them everyday to be kind and gentle, More like You. Give them a little something to forgive each day, that their love might learn to be long suffering.

Bless them and develop their characters as they walk together with You. Give them enough hurts to keep them humane, enough failures to keep their hands clenched tightly in Yours, and enough of success to make them sure they walk with You throughout all of their life.

May they never take each other's love for granted but always experience that breathless wonder that exclaims, "Out of all this world, you have chosen me." Then, when life is done and the sun is setting, may they be found then as now, still hand in hand, still very proud, still thanking You for each other.

May they travel together as friends and lovers, brother and sister, husband and wife, father and mother, and as servants of Christ until He shall return or until that day when one shall lay the other into the arms of God. This I ask, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the Great Lover of our souls. Amen.

Adapted from Dr. Luis H. Evans' Marriage Prayer for Bride and Groom 

Wedding Bells? I Think Not!

 

 

Last week I received another marriage proposal. By the same man who asks me EVERY month. You see, he works at the Lawra Water and Sanitation Authority. And, when he is there when I pay my bill, he proposes marriage to me. In the past, I have told him, "I am too old. There are younger women here." He responded, "I see them come and go. It is YOU I want." I said, "but I am 60 years old. I am too old." He responded, "I am seventy years old. You are not too old."

 

During our latest discussion of marriage, I smiled when I turned him down. He said that because I was smiling, I meant that I really do want to marry him. He told me, "In Lawra, you can find love anywhere...in the market, in Lawra towne, at the river..." "...and, evidently at the Lawra Water and Sanitation Authority," I responded. He laughed. He told me we will have an April wedding.

 

So, there you have it. This 70 year old man wants to marry me in April. I don't know his name. If I asked, it would probably seal the deal. I don't know if I will be the only wife or the second or third wife, maybe even the fourth wife. I didn't even tell him who to talk to about a bride price!

 

Hmmm...I think I will send someone else to pay my water bill next month!