So yesterday I was babysitting and I got to take the little two-year-old I watch out on an adventure. One of our stops was Barnes and Noble. We had so much fun reading and playing with the toys in the kid's section, I loved it! As we were about to leave, Livy wanted to look at one last book (one she already has at home) and while she was doing that I saw on the top shelf a Princess book. I thought, oh this is so cute and opened the book... It was all about marriage! This was a book with an audience of two to eight-year-olds or so and the whole darn thing was about marriage. I can't remember everything that was in it but it was basically ten steps to a wonderful marriage and it listed things like having the perfect shoes, the perfect jewelry, the perfect dress, the perfect Prince Charming. I wish I could remember some of the actual wording in the book because I know my jaw just dropped. This is what we are feeding to children?
At the women's retreat in the Fall one of the major things I talked to Jane Nucup about was how we are taught as women to prepare for the perfect wedding day. Everything on our wedding day must be flawless, exact, and wonderful. No one can forget anything or mess anything up. Who cares what God's plans for the day are, we just ignore them in an effort to have everything "perfect." But... the words we have in our prayer about perfection are: Until you are both satisfied exclusively with Me and the life I have prepared for you, you won't be able to experience the love that exemplifies your relationship with Me. And this is perfect love. and I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with Me, and to enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union of beauty, perfection, and love that I offer you with Myself. It's all about HIM. Our focus should be on HIM. As Jane and I were talking, we just wondered about how we are only taught to care about the "big day" and we forget that this union is forever. We aren't prepared for the next 50, 60, 70 years of our life with this person. Today, I pray that we can all examine what the focus is in our hearts and that we can move even closer to God's heart through this prayer.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteThis is something that I've been praying about a lot lately. I know you and I LOVE purchasing wedding magazines and idolizing the wedding day. Don't get me wrong, the wedding day is a BEAUTIFUL experience, but I've recognized that I have seen plenty of magazines that I'll be able to plan my wedding in a week if I need to when it comes. What I need to focus more on is praying for my future relationship...where my marriage will go and how we will live and love one another forever.
Love you :)
Ali
This is so true! I have friends that have already made playlists of "wedding songs" on their iPods, who know what color bridesmaid dresses they want, where they want it to be, etc. They leave God no role in this big day, not to mention whoever it is they're going to marry! In a talk I'm planning for spring retreat, I talk a lot about how we have sooo many more areas of our lives to give to God. We're so consumed with planning things ourselves that we push Him out of the way, essentially saying that we can handle it better alone than He can; that we know what we're doing more than He does. It's kind of ridiculous but we're so guilty of it! I think another good challenge would be to not think about weddings, or at least as little as possible, until you are actually going to sit down and prayerfully plan with your husband-to-be, the most important guest :)
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