NINE YEARS AGO - THE WORDS

Tim's vows - Bethany, today I take you to be my wife. I feel confident that it was God's will that brought us together. I promise to love, honor, and cherish you. It is my earnest prayer that I will be able to provide for your physical needs as Christ has provided for our spiritual needs. Being one in our Lord's sight will always make me share myself completely with you. Bethany, as we turn to the future together, whether it means in prosperous or difficult times, we will continue to seek God's will for our lives.


Bethany's vows - Tim, today I take you to be my husband. I am confident that God has brought us together as part of his eternal will for our lives. With God's help I promise to love, cherish, honor, and obey you. I will trust you to provide for your physical needs even as Christ provides for our spiritual needs. My earnest prayer is that I will be completely open with you, sharing all my thoughts and feelings, that we might be truly one as God intended. And as one we will continue to seek God's will for our lives together.


Ring ceremony - This ring I have to you in token and pledge of our constant faith and abiding love. I join you in our promises and doubly seal our vows. I declare in in the presence of these witnesses, and before God, that I take you as my wife/husband. I love you and I will always be faithful to you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.


Dad's blessing - Bethany, during the summer that your mother and I got married, we decided to start having a family right away. One year and six days after our wedding I was sitting in a hospital waiting room at about two o'clock in the morning. I remember hearing an elevator door open and from that elevator I remember hearing a crying baby.

That baby was the fruit of the love that existed between your mother and me. You were a gift from God. And we named you Bethany after a town that was a special place in the life of Jesus. Our hope in naming you Bethany was that Jesus would have special place in your life.

So, your mother and I committed ourselves to bringing you up to know Jesus Christ in a personal way, to love Him, and to follow him all the days of your life. And that is what you have done. You have taken the torch of faith - passed from mother to daughter and passed from father to daughter - and today you are entering marriage as a follower of Jesus Christ. I want you to know, Bethany, that your mom would be very proud of you today. And I also want you to know that I am very proud of you today.

My most cherished memories of you are not memories from your early childhood, but memories from your teenage years when you were in high school. I clearly remember this daughter of mine who would finish her school day, then go to work for a couple of hours after school, then come home in the evening to a father who was usually sitting alone in the living room - to a father who was struggling with his recent widowhood. And you would sit on the floor beside me and you spend hours talking to me about whatever you felt like talking about.

I don't know of too many men who have been blessed with teenage daughters who have enjoyed just sitting around and talking with their dads. I was one of the lucky ones. And you will never know, Bethany, just how much those times encouraged me during a period in my life when I really needed encouraging. And now you are all grown up and now you will be able to be a blessing to another lucky man. I believe you are good for Tim and I believe Tim is good for you. And I give you my blessing.

Tim, I knew about you before I ever knew you. I still remember the message left on my answering machine over two years ago. It was the familiar voice of my older daughter. She said, "Hi, Dad! I just called to tell you something I've never been able to tell you before. I have a boyfriend!" She was excited, Tim. You had stirred my daughter's heart.

I could tell you many things about Bethany - her strengths, her weaknesses, the unique qualities that make her who she is. But the only thing want to tell you now, Tim, is that Bethany really loves you. And I also want you to know that I love you too.

Today I will become your father-in-law. But beyond that, I want you to know that if you ever need me to just be your friend, that I will be your friend. And you ever need some advice about marriage, I will be glad to tell you a love story about a girl named Barbara and a guy named Bruce and how we learned to build a marriage together on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

But today I'm not going to give you advice about marriage. I'm going to give you a gift. And I want you to receive this gift as though it were a precious gem - because my gift to you is a precious gem. I'm giving you my daughter's hand in marriage. And I'm trusting you, Tim, to take care of my daughter from now on. I'm confident that you will. And I give you my blessing.


If you'd like to see pictures from our wedding day, then check out the "NINE YEARS AGO - THE PICTURES" post.