This Season of Engagement

In this new season of being engaged, I have realized that it is so easy to be self-focused. How important it is for me to meet with my Savior daily to keep me from the traps of self-centered thinking! It is so natural to think that the wedding day is "all about me" and "my day," and that everything needs to look perfect. After all, that is what the world keeps telling me, along with the the plethora of bridal magazines that somehow end up in my mailbox. It is all too easy to slip into this kind of attitude when I'm juggling vendors or stuffing invitations in my living room because as a sinner, this kind of thinking actually originates from my sin and feeds it with pleasure.

Without the daily reading of His Word I can easily slip into the slavery of self and grow anxious at what needs to be done, what isn't looking right, or even throw an envious thought while coming across pictures from another bride's wedding day. But oh, how His Word reminds me of what weddings and marriage were created to point to! The sweet, intimate and beautiful picture of Christ and the Church: our Bridegroom, Jesus, saves us, the bride, from our sinful tendencies toward ourselves and brings great glory to God, our loving and gracious Father.

Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross for our sins and for calling us Your bride. May our wedding day be a display of the wedding that is to take place when you come again and bring us Home. Sdg.

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. - Acts 20:24