3 years ago today...

Today is our 3 year anniversary (woohoo!!!!).  We are being boring, and working today, and will probably end up celebrating with a relaxing evening at home.  We did however take a 4 day weekend, and will spend the next 4 days celebrating, relaxing, and enjoying time to connect with each other.  No real agenda, other than to not have lots of commitments and to enjoy our time.  We tend not to be over the top in our celebrations, but to really enjoy the simple things, time together, a dinner out, long walks holding hands, and good talks where it feels as though we've touched souls.

Over the years (and through wise words spoken to me by friends) I've learned to not put so much pressure or such high expectations on a particular day, event, or celebration.  I've learned that often I tend to idealize things in my mind, and then end up disappointed if things don't go as well as I'd planned.  I've learned that expectations add stress and pressure.  I've learned that often the most meaningful times are the unplanned ones, that happen along the way of living life.  I've learned that while romance can include flowers, candles, and wining and dining that it doesn't have to.  That lasting romance is experienced through our commitment to each other in spite of the ups and downs, through unconditional love, and through our marriage staying centered on the Lord.  So here's to our celebration of love, life, and marriage.  I leave you with the script from our wedding, I love going back and reading our vows and the Scriptures read at our wedding.

Jeremy and Shannon today is an exciting day of celebration, joy and a bit of stress. Marriage is designed by God to provide a safe place of love, comfort and adventure.

Eclesiastes 4:12  A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.


Genesis 2:24  This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.


Today, two individuals are becoming one. Jeremy and Shannon are entering a covenant of marriage saying, “We are walking this path together. Divorce is not an option. We are committed to God and each other.”


Ruth 1:16  But Ruth replied, "Don't ask me to leave you and turn back. I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.


Earthly marriage is a great prelude to the main event of history. Human love and marriage provide us a picture of a future event. One day, Jesus Christ promised that he would return for His bride “the church.” Through a relationship with Jesus you receive not only an invitation to the wedding but a reception dinner that is truly other-worldly.


Paul in the book of Ephesians blends his conversation about marriage and the church.


Ephesians 5:22-33  You wives will submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of his body, the church; he gave his life to be her Savior. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives must submit to your husbands in everything.  And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by baptism and God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man is actually loving himself when he loves his wife. No one hates his own body but lovingly cares for it, just as Christ cares for his body, which is the church.  And we are his body. As the Scriptures say, "A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one." This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.


Jeremy, Paul’s words here give you a clue to a happy, meaningful marriage. Love your wife the way Christ loved the church…selflessly. Shannon, you are not off the hook. You are to respect your husband. Women need to be loved. Men need to be respected. Couples that forget this, endure marriage they do not enjoy it.  Love and Respect.


The vows affirm the covenant relationship between a husband and a wife.


Jeremy, repeat after me: I, Jeremy, take you Shannon, to be my wife, my friend and my life-partner for the rest of our lives. Before God, family and friends I pledge to you my life. I will be faithful to you in sickness and in health, in good and bad times, in times of joy and well as in times of sorrow. I promise to love you as Christ loves His church.

Shannon, repeat after me: I, Shannon, take you Jeremy, to be my husband, my friend and my life-partner for the rest of our lives. Before God, family and friends I pledge to you my life. I will be faithful to you in sickness and in health, in good and bad times, in times of joy and well as in times of sorrow. I promise to respect you and follow your lead.


In the church, baptism is the outward sign of an inward commitment to Christ. In the marriage, the ring is an outward symbol of fidelity. The rings do not make you married. They let others know that you are.


Do you, Jeremy, give this ring to Shannon, as a visible symbol of your fidelity to her.


Jeremy, repeat after me:  Shannon, I give you this ring, as a promise of my fidelity and as an expression of my love.


Do you, Shannon, give this ring to Jeremy, as a visible symbol of your fidelity to him?


Shannon, repeat after me: Jeremy, I give this ring to you as a promise of my fidelity and as an expression of my respect for you.


I now pronounce you husband and wife before God, family and friends.  Jeremy, you may now kiss your wife.  I present to you Mr. And Mrs. Jeremy Mangerchine.

Happy anniversary Jeremy! I love you more than ever! I love our life together! I love serving, seeking, and growing in the Lord together! I love the man that you are... a leader worthy of following. I love the woman that you make me. May we always put the Lord first in our lives, and may we always put each other next, above all others!

Shannon