I must admit that I had my occasional doubts back in 1989
about whether I was ready to commit to marriage. Prior to our wedding, I hadn’t
been in church but a couple of times in the 1980’s, and it is probably fair to
say that I didn’t have much business coming before God and vowing to love you,
honor and cherish you. I knew very little of the trials and tribulations that
were to come our way.
However, God has a plan and it’s his own plan and quite
often it is not the plan we might anticipate. And, by the grace of God, his
plan for us was that we would be together, forever. The early years of our marriage were simpler, yet much more
uncertain in many ways. Over the last 25 years you and I have believed in each
other, and in God, and that love and faith is at the cornerstone of everything
we do.
There have been moments in the last few weeks and months
that I questioned why were renewing our vows and I have wondered what others
think of our decision to do so.
After all, most people don’t do what we are doing now and as we learned
in the scripture that Uncle Mark read, love is never boastful or arrogant. But,
as our 25th wedding anniversary is upon us, I am happy and thankful
that we are taking the opportunity to publicly renew our vows in the presence
of our loved ones, our family and our friends whom we are blessed to have in
our lives. For we are doing so not
for boastful or arrogant reasons, but out of love for each other, in
celebration of our coming years together, and to renew our marriage covenant
with God, each other, our family and our friends.
As you know, and as most of you all know, my father died
when I was a very young boy and so I was raised in a household void of the
example of a loving marital relationship and, in a sense, without real
knowledge of how to be, and what it takes, to be a husband and father. And, of course, you lived in a single
parent household for much of your childhood as well, and so we have lived,
laughed, loved and grown together.
And so, today, I, Mark, promise as I did 25 years ago, to
love, honor and cherish you all the rest of my days, in good times and in bad,
for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, with the help of God. Only today, I do so with a much clearer and more certain understanding of who you are, who I am, and who we are as a
couple. I do so with a faith in God that helps us and sustains each of us
separately, together as a union and as parents to Beau, Teale and Gwenn. I love you.
