What An Honor!!!!

I had the honor of performing the wedding ceremony for some very dear friends of mine last week on 7 January 2006. This is only the fourth wedding that I have had the honor of doing and I can tell you that I take it very seriously. It breaks my heart when I hear about any of these couples having troubles or even getting divorced, as has happened. I recently read a friend of mine's blog about a wedding she went to on the same day I did my past wedding. And she was touched about the part in the vows that says to honor each other. I think what she had to say is one of the keys to a successful marriage. If you can learn to really honor one another then I think you will find one way to make your marriage last. And what does honor mean? According to dictionary.com it means: to hold in respect; esteem; to show respect for. If someone did that for you how could you not, but do the same in return and if that keeps going back and forth then I think you will begin to find success! But back to the honor (great privilege) that I had in doing the wedding for this fine couple..... I can not even begin to tell you how much I am so grateful that Tim and Kim would chose me over all the other pastor's that they know to perform their wedding ceremony and to also go through pre-marital counseling with them. It is not an easy thing to allow someone to ask you persoanl questions about you, your family, and your relationship with one another. But this couple felt comfortable enough with me (and Kimmy) to do that. One of the books that I like to use for this is called The Most Important Year in a Woman's Life, The Most Important Year in a Man's Life. It is a two sided book that on one side the guy read and the other the girl reads. Then in the middle there are questions to ask one another, but what we do is discuss them together. I have used this with a couple that I did some marriage counseling witha nd it really helped out that couple, so I started using it for pre-marital counseling also. It was really neat to get to know this couple while going over those questions together. They also invited Kimmy and I to their bachelorette and bachelor parties respectively. How often do you invite the pastor, who is doing your wedding ceremony, and his wife along to those? I would dare say that does not happen very often. I muc prefer to do the wedding of someone that I know and have a friendship with then to do one for a couple that I really do not know. So Tim and Kim, "THANK YOU!" It really was my honor!