a bride.

wedding season is upon us... sigh. i love weddings. i love watching tlc's wedding shows, one of my fave movie's is the wedding planner, and i love when i get to sneak a glimpse of a wedding party taking pictures at a park... there's just something so wonderful about a wedding day.

i also love to be a 'creeper' on facebook during wedding season. i love looking at the dress, the flowers, the venue... the whole deal. if you're my friend on facebook and you're married, chances are almost 100% that i've looked at your wedding pictures. Take it as a compliment or not.:)

I look back on my own day and think about things i would have done differently but always look back at that day with so much fondness. I remember being so sure that I was marrying the perfect person for me. {which to this day i believe is true}. it was on my top five best days of my life.

the bride part of the wedding is fun. you look all glammed up... you have a beautiful dress on and everyone is looking at you. you feel overwhelmed with all the people who have gathered to see your special day and you get the chance to live out the very day that you've dreamed of since you were a little girl. but, there's the whole other part of it too... the after we get married I'm not a bride, I'm a wife part that's just as beautiful but I'd say is a bit more challenging. You have more than one day to perfect it... Lord willing you have a lifetime to perfect it but it's a large task.

When I'm at a wedding I usually have two emotional moments. One is that I usually tear up or cry (if I really know the person) when they walk down the aisle because of the special moment but more because they don't know the task that they're signing up for. In all honesty, I don't know that anyone would walk down the aisle if they knew all the hard work that a marriage take. Yes, I probably sound like a cynic but I've been in a marriage for four years and it's an everyday choice to love and serve sacrificially... it's not easy. I love it, let me repeat that, I LOVE IT, but it's not easy. I also always laugh at the sweet giddiness of the couple because they are so in love and so excited and it's a sweet love. And although I think that the mister and I still have that sweet love, now that we're married our love has become so much deeper than that. When you whether storms together and know that niether of you is gonna throw their ring at you and call it quits... its a love that is so much deeper.

but i got thinking about this yesterday when i read proverbs 31. it says...

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. - The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. - She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. - She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. - She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar. - She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. - She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. - She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. - She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night. - She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. - She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. - She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. - She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple. - Her husband is known in the gates - when he sits among the elders of the land. - She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant. - Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. - She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. - She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. - Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: - "Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all." - Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. - Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

and, i was taking notes in my journal as if i had never read the proverb before. I was like that is one 'honkin' calling' to be a wife. and later that day i was texting with someone whom i admire as a wife saying that it is quite a task and she said... "but her husband's heart safely trusts in her." the perfect response. I don't want to be the cynic at weddings. and I don't want to look back and think oh i wish i was a bride again because that is so much fun. but rather I want to be a wife that lives up to this high calling and does it well so that my man trusts in me and that we walk in the strength not that we can muster up on our own. because being a bride is fun but being a wife is so much better.:)

from bride to wife,
kg:)