June is a busy time for weddings - well most years, anyway. I was thinking about a wedding I attended for a very special friend. We met when I helped with senior high youth at church. It was a God thing - one of those relationships that you know God had your paths crossed. As I have reflected on this life and this wedding, I am reminded that God is always in control. I am so thankful for this union and the blessings that I see in this marriage. We had many talks about "when it was time to get married" and "when it was time to be a parent." I prayed for God to bring the right mate with the right family. As always, God is faithful beyond belief.
Proverbs 18: 22, "He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD." I know he trusted God with this decision. We know that God knew before the bride was born that God would make her his help mate. Genesis 2: 18, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help mate for him”. Genesis 2: 24, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh."
As I reflected on the ceremony I was reminded of many Scriptures. Ephesians 5: 25, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
Proverbs 5: 15, "Be faithful to your own wife and give your love to her alone." Ephesians 5: 26-27, "...to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Hebrews 13: 4, "Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery."
Proverbs 5: 17, "Be happy with the wife you married when you were young. She gives you joy."
Colossians 3: 19, "Husbands, go all out in love for your wives. Don’t take advantage of them."
Ecclesiastes 9: 9: "Enjoy life with the wife you love." Proverbs 5: 18, "So be happy with your wife and find your joy with the woman you married." As I meditate on these scriptures all I can say is you have to have God as the third one in the marriage to make it work. God intends for us to enjoy marriage!
I love the saying, "Ladies, a real man does more than pay for you, he prays for you” by Jarrid Wilson. I have been praying for my future son-in-laws for many years. I learned from a mother of two boys to start praying for your children's spouses when they were young children. God's timing will be perfect. My prayer for my daughter's and their future husbands are based on God’s Word, because God’s Word is always God’s will. And the bonus is that when you pray for someone on a regular basis you feel like you know them and you care about them. When I meet these men I will already love them. I found this prayer for a daughter's future husband that I love. It is a good prayer for any marriage.
"Lord, You created my daughter. You saw her being formed in my womb, and you knew she existed, even before I did.
Besides knowing you as her Savior, who she chooses to marry is the most important decision she will ever make. And so Lord, I pray for her. I pray for him. I pray for them.
God, may my daughter's future husband love you with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
May he be a man who loves other people as he loves himself.
God, be working in him, even now to form his love for you, and for others.
Put people in his life to help him love you. Put circumstances in his life to help him trust you.
Put successes in his life to help him praise you.
Lord, may my daughter's future husband appreciate her goodness and her gifts, and may he value her as his true companion. May he be a godly, servant leader of their home. Make him the kind of man who can say with genuine authenticity, 'Follow me, as I follow Christ.'
Lord, help my daughter's future husband be a hard worker, a man of complete integrity, and a man she can trust to protect her and provide for her. Teach him the value and satisfaction of a job well done.
May my daughter's future husband be an unselfish man, who loves her as Christ loves his church. Give my daughter a man who is willing to sacrifice himself for her. And Lord, help my daughter never take his sacrifices on her behalf for granted.
God, I pray that my daughter's future husband would be strong, loving, kind and wise. Help him live with her in an understanding way. May he validate her strengths, and help her grow in her weaknesses. May she do the same for him.
I pray their life together will be filled with love and laughter. May they always be friends, and never stop being lovers. Give them a home filled with joy.
I pray they will cling to each other through the storms of life. When life gets hard, remind them to turn toward each other, not away from each other. Give my daughter a man who is brave enough to work through difficulties with humility and grace. Give her a man that won't quit on her, on himself or on You.
God, I pray that my daughter's future husband would give himself fully to her, ad she to him. Give them deep satisfaction in each other's embrace. May he be a safe refuge for her; may she be a safe refuge for him.
May their life together be a signpost for others that declares, 'God is real and God is good.'
But Lord, until the day he walks into her life, and she walks into his, draw them both close to You. May each of them learn how to depend on You. Always. Give his parents wisdom as they raise him. Give us wisdom as we raise her.
Lord, watch over him. Watch over her. And bless them both. Amen."
Prayer scripture references: Psalm 139: 13-16; Matthew 22: 36-40; Ephesians 5: 23-28; 1 Peter 3: 7; 1 Timothy 5: 8; Colossians 3: 12-19; 1 Corinthians 7: 1-5
Maybe the title should be, "Lord, Love, Laughter - Happily ever after!