Wedding preparations can be overwhelming and endless it seems. Many brides and grooms by their side have had a meltdown prior to the wedding. If you can relate, you are not alone.
Be encouraged and take heart. Fear not! The best is yet to come. It has been said that marriage is like making mashed potatoes. First, you peel the potatoes. Secondly, you place them in hot water to boil. Thirdly, you mash them all up together until they become one.
Whatever stage of life you are currently in, I’m here to tell you that you’re going to make it. Maybe you are presently being peeled by life’s circumstances and wedding preparations up to your eyeballs. Perhaps you are now boiling in hot water and undergoing some emotional stress. Relationally we are all being brought closer together and smoothing out one another’s rough edges. The process however can be like crushing grapes to make wine. Nevertheless remember how delicious and intoxicating the wine can be once the grapes are crushed.
Life and love flows in seasons and stages. There are many circular parallels between nature and life itself. Perhaps you are currently enduring the winter season of your relationship and engagement. Realize your love has not died, but rather its roots are going deep and your love’s foundation being strengthened. Commitment surpasses romantic notions and fluctuating feelings. Often love is more of a decision than a feeling.
Death and life are always occurring simultaneously. Marital love that lasts a lifetime requires that we welcome and embrace a more intense type of relational interaction as we become one. That means you both must be committed to personal growth individually and together. Therefore when some things are identified as harmful to your marriage, you need to humbly repent of them and be willing to die to them. As you die to deadly habits and refine your character, you will resurrect and breathe fresh life into your marriage. The more you die to self, the more you together as one shall love and live.
Here are three wedding preparation prayers to pray together:
“Dear Lord, please help me to be humble, self-aware, and selfless in my love toward others. As we prepare for holy matrimony, prepare my heart and establish me in your holiness. Forgive me hurtful things done and said. Please kindly cleanse and forgive me. Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Help me to experience the love of my heavenly Father and mold me to be more like you. Holy Spirit help me to love myself and others unconditionally. Enable me to be loving, kind, peaceable, and compassionate. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
“Heavenly Father, the wedding details and planning is overwhelming as You know. Please have mercy on us and help us through it all. You instituted and encourage marriage in Your Word. We are endeavoring to love and obey You. As we do and plan for our wedding, please kindly empower, undergird, and uphold us. Please help us inwardly to experience a breakthrough rather than be broken down by all of the planning and preparations. Give us Your glorious and radiant Holy Spirit to embody and personify what marriage is truly all about. Fill us to overflowing with your divine love so we can be the light of the world. Thank you for giving us each other to love and brighten each other’s days. Help us to always honor and respect one another. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
“Lord Jesus, please impart to me your peace. Prince of peace give me a divine release and help me relinquish control. God, help me not be overwhelmed and overtaken by all of the wedding details. Please intervene and take control of that which is beyond my control. Help me to enjoy this our wedding day and not be a bridezilla. Father in heaven, give me the groom a compassionate, tender, supportive, understanding, and nurturing heart. Help us to grow together day by day through it all and remain honorable in all we say and do. Let our love be preeminent above all else. Reveal to us your love and life God, so we can live by a higher law and not be limited by the minuscule matters here below. Show yourself strong God when we are weak. We vow to give You all of the glory for every victory. In Jesus Name. Amen.”
Be encouraged my friends. You are not alone. There is nothing new under the sun. The honeymoon is ahead after the wedding and will be a most wonderful time for you to rest and rejoice in one another’s love. Ironically and truthfully planning a wedding may be one of the most stressful times your life. Nevertheless it will greatly show you much about yourself and where you need to grow and mature.
Rejoice and continually cultivate your maturing love. Wishes for love, laughter, and happily ever after!
