I’ve been to many hundreds of weddings – officiated at most of them! 

Most of the time the bride’s dress is white and the groom’s tux or suit is black.  Which reminds me – A young girl was attending her first wedding.  As the bride and groom were exchanging vows, she whispered to her mother, “How come the bride’s dress is white?” 

“Because,” answered her mother, “White is the color of happiness, and today is the happiest day in the bride’s life.”

“How come then,” the astute girl asked, “is the groom’s suit black?”

Last Saturday, January 19, was a very happy day for my nephew, Brad Leach and his fiancée, Leah Edwards.

After waiting patiently for God to provide the perfect “help-mate” for each of them, Brad and Leah tied the knot with hundreds of family and friends supporting them.

Everything about the wedding was stunning. The energy was high. Laughter abounded.  The preachers connected with the couple and the guests. The food was exquisitely delicious. The high point for me was when Brad and Leah shared their vows with each other.  With their permission I share them with you.

Brad to Leah:  You look so amazing!  I don’t know if I can remember to say anything else.  I feel so grateful to be able to choose you today and I want you to know that I am going to do my best to make you laugh as often as I can, to hold you when you cry.  I want to work to create memories for our family, to plan and embrace the kinds of moments that will allow us in our lives to live an adventurous and memorable life together.  I want to bless you to pursue your dreams.  I believe in you.  I recognize the outstanding gifts that are in your life and my goal is to make sacrifices to make room for your gifts to continue to blossom.

 I commit to do my best to choose my words carefully.  I want to speak into your life words that are affirming, words that are sensitive, words that are inspiring and life-giving and I want to work to love you unconditionally, to make our marriage a safe one so that you will never have to perform to earn my love.  You will have it, when you are tired, when you are sick, when you are celebrating, when you are at your best and most importantly when you are not.  Most of all I want to love you best by loving Jesus first and serving you as he serves me.  I am so happy that He helped me to wait for you…every minute was worth it…all 15 million of them!

Leah to Brad:  Brad, I have been praying for you long before I ever knew your name and to see the man that God brought here today you are so much more than I could ever have asked or imagined.  And my prayer is that God would teach me how to be your wife, the woman that He has created me to be and by His grace.

 I promise to love you as Jesus loves you.  I promise to put your needs and your desires before my own.  I promise to honor you, to respect you and to be your biggest champion.  I promise to take care of you when you are sick, physically, or mentally, or emotionally.  I promise to hold your arms up when you are too tired to stand.  I promise to support your passions and to submit to your leadership in our family.  I promise to dream big dreams with you even if it’s thinking that this might be the big year for the Lions.  I promise to choose to love you when I feel like it and even when I don’t, and I promise to give my whole self to you completely with reckless abandon knowing that you are going to love me just as our Father does.  These things I promise to you Brad Leach for as long as we both shall live.  I love you more than words can express and I think this is going to be so much fun!

What great promises they’ve made!  What maturity and insight! What a great start for a life-long marriage!  I’m confident that through the grace of God, Brad and Leah will finish strong, just as they have begun.

Congratulations, Brad and Leah!  We love you!

I love a good deal! About ten days ago Debbie, Jonathan, Bethany, and I were traveling from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Springfield, Missouri. Sitting in the Chicago O’Hare airport awaiting our flight to Springfield, the gate agent called my name.
“We’re overbooked,” he told me. “If you and your family would be willing to fly out tomorrow morning, we’ll give you four roundtrip tickets to anywhere United flies the forty-eight states. . . We’ll also pay for your hotel tonight and give you dinner.”
For a guy who loves to take his family on little trips, this was a dream deal, a too-good-to-give up offer! “I’m sure we’ll take it,” I responded. “Let me check with my family. I’ll be right back.”
Enthusiastically, I shared the deal. “Just think!” I said. “Four free tickets!”
“What do you think?” I asked. Bethany’s face told her feelings — Her words were soft and kind, “I’d rather go home, dad. Jonathan and I want to go to Des Moines tomorrow and if we don’t get back to Springfield until afternoon. . .” I don’t remember the rest of her words, but I got the drift. Debbie was nodding in motherly agreement. I’m doing the math. . . 4 x $400. . .
“Thanks for the offer,” I told the gate agent. “We need to get home tonight.”
As I have reflected on those few moments, what stands out to me was that Bethany felt safe to express her thoughts and feelings. She knew I wanted to take the free tickets and spend the night in Chicago, yet she felt free to give her opinion. And when I gave up the “deal” for my daughter, I was expressing my value of her.
Once we were comfortably seated on the plane and flying home, I said to Bethany, “While you know I would have been excited about four free tickets, I am more excited that you felt the freedom to share your opinion with me. I just want you to know, honey, I value you a lot more than free flights.”
While giving up four free flights is a rather small thing in the light of the major events of our lives, that experience continues to inform and challenge me.
Just as Jesus valued the leper and touched him – just as Jesus valued Jairus and his daughter and went to her home and raised her from the dead – just as Jesus values each of us so much that He gave up His life so we could have eternal life – so God calls us to value others – to honor and respect them, to put their needs and desires ahead of ours!
How do we show value to our friends, family, and new acquaintances?
• By looking them in the eye when they are speaking to us
• By not insisting on having our way, even when we feel strongly about “our way.”
Jesus views everyone as significant. Zacchaeus was a dishonest tax collector (Luke 19:1-10). Jesus could have ignored him, but He saw him in the tree and called him by name.
It’s important that Christians acknowledge others as people with value. Brennan Manning writes, “A Christian who doesn’t merely see but looks at another communicates to that person that he is being recognized as a human being in an impersonal world of objects.”
Do the people we interact with know that we view them as valuable to us and to God? —Anne Cetas
Burdened people everywhere
Need to know what Christ has done;
They need to feel God’s love and care—
It was for them He sent His Son. —D. De Haan
Love people and not things, use things and not people.