Putting the Marriage Above the Wedding

The wedding is pretty much the only thing on my mind these days. Wedding dresses, wedding planning, wedding countdown, engagement pictures, if it's part of a wedding, it's on my mind. In fact, my mom and MOH are coming in TONIGHT and we are going to find me a perfect dress for this big day. 

But with all this talk and focus on the wedding, sometimes I forgot that I need to be putting twice (probably more like 124738947491) as much effort into preparing for our marriage. We have been reading "The Meaning of Marriage" by Tim Keller and it has been fantastic. Last night I read a section that just rocked me a little bit and I haven't been able to get it off my mind. He is talking about the meaning of marriage and he says " Each spouse should see the great thing that Jesus is doing in the life of their mate through the Word, the gospel. Each spouse then should give him or herself to be a vehicle for that work and envision the day that you will stand together before God, seeing each other presented in spotless beauty and glory". Wow. The whole meaning of marriage is to become holy, to see the potential in your spouse and do whatever you can to help get them there. Keller says the only way to truly do that, is to have a deep spiritual friendship. You must be friends in order for you to be able to help your spouse in their journey to holiness. This is a big responsibility and one that needs our full attention. In the next chapter he is going to talk about ways to do that for our spouse. I can't wait to see what practical ways he uses to do this. 

There are times where it all seems so terrifying and I can't help but think " how in the world am I going to do this?", but that's just it isn't it? In this world, we can't do it. We must completely empty ourselves and fling ourselves at our Savior. I think that's the only way to do this thing.