“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
Jeremiah 31: 33
Ephesians 5: 31
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
and THE TWO WILL BEOCME ONE flesh.”
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
and THE TWO WILL BEOCME ONE flesh.”
“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the LORD. Isaiah 59:21
Genises 2:21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[g] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib[h] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Ehpesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Ecclesiastes 4: 9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Matthew 19: 4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’[a] 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’[b]? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
1 Peter 3: 1 Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. 5 For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, 6 like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.
7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
1 Corinthians 7:1 Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7 I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.
8 Now to the unmarried[a] and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
10 To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11 But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.
12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
15 But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. 16 How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
Hebrews 13: 4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Exodus 23: 25 Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, 26 and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.
This mom of three boys has a few really important things she wants her future daughters-in-law to know. This letter is a touching must-read.
Someone recently asked me what kind of men I hope my sons grow up to be. I think about this every day.
Even though I look at my sons and see my babies, I’m not raising babies. I am raising men. Men who some day will hopefully become fathers and husbands. Some of the most important roles in existence. It’s my job as their mother to raise them with the skills necessary to go out into the world and fulfill those roles well. Each and every day I am gifted with these boys, I am committed to that responsibility.
So …
To my future daughters-in-law,
I have a few things I want to say to you. This can’t possibly cover it all, but luckily, we have some time.
I don’t know you yet, but already, I love you. I love you so much, because some day, you will love my son. And he will return that love.
There will come a day that this sticky, messy, silly little boy will be yours. He will always be mine, but you will take my place in many ways.
Someday your hand will replace mine. Your eyes will be his peace and your heart will be his home.
It’ll be you he kisses goodnight.
It’ll be you he shares his dreams with.
It’ll be you who comforts him when he is scared.
It’ll be you who holds his heart. The same heart that beats against my chest as I hold him each night.
Someday, darling, that will be you.
I always thought I would have a daughter. Now I know that’s you. I want you to know I pray for you every day, just as I pray for my sons.
Right now, you’re everything to your own parents, just as my sons are everything to me. I pray you are cherished. Delighted in. Upheld and believed in. I pray you are being taught to love yourself first, because without that strong love, you will not be as equipped to love others successfully. I pray you are shown every day what a gift you are. I pray that if that message is somehow missed by those around you, you always know that when God looks at you, He sees His princess.
I am raising my son to view you that same way.
I pray you understand your worth and that you respect yourself. That you are being shown to respect others just the same. I pray that you are not afraid to share your voice, but that you use it to speak life; not only to yourself and others you encounter, but to my son. Men need you to speak life into them.
I want you to know that although I will make a lot of mistakes, I am committed to raising my son to honor you. I cannot take full credit, nor blame, for his beauty or his flaws. My own mom taught me that.
He is his own man. He has his own quirks and idiosyncracies. You’ll figure those out as you go; and someday, you too will know him better than anyone else in the world. Give him the space to be himself, and I will teach him to do the same for you.
He won’t complete you. And you won’t complete him. Only God can do that. But I pray you edify each other and encourage each other to be even better together than you are on your own.
I promise to let you in. To share my secrets and knowledge of him so that you can love him best. When the time comes, I will trust you with his heart, just as you will trust him with yours. I do not take this heart exchange lightly, and I pray you don’t either. I am raising him to understand the value of a woman’s heart. That it’s priceless, and once broken, can never go back to the way it was before.
That’s not always a bad thing, but if we can avoid it, I don’t want my son to be the one who breaks your heart. I also want you to remember that he can’t be the one to heal it. Again, only God can do that. But I will raise my son to forever cherish the gift that is you and your love. I will teach him to understand your value. To honor and respect you, as you do him.
I strive to raise my boys in such a way that they learn how to be strong, yet vulnerable. Brave, yet humble. Courageous and fearless, yet unafraid to ask for help. That they are leaders but know how to follow. I pray he leads you well and understands the honor it is to be in that role. I pray he serves you, but that you never take advantage of his sacrifice.
I pray he fully understands his role as a man and that he lives his life with integrity, honor, humility, honesty, faith and humor. That he knows who he is first in Christ and then within himself. I pray he follows his dreams and passions and that nothing stands in the way of that, to include you. I pray the same for you.
I am committed to raising my son to be independent and never to look to you to be his mother, because I will have stood in that role well. I vow to be fully present for him. To teach him what he needs to know about women and how special they are. I promise to raise him in such a way that he always remembers you are someone’s daughter and that you belonged to him after you belonged to God and your parents.
I pray that with each day you love my son, your love swells and overflows. I pray the same for him. I hope as the two of you build a life together, that you never forget how that life was built. Stand strong together. You will need each other in this life. Though I am teaching him towant you rather than to need you, there will be times that he will need you. And you will need him. Be there.
Support each other. Love each other. Choose each other.
The noise of the world will be loud. It won’t always be easy. There may be days that you look at him and question every decision you ever made. In those moments, I pray you will fall back on the foundation you built together and remember why you chose to stand there.
I promise to raise him to be enough within himself so that he can then be enough for you.
We’ve got a lot of years before we meet. But each day between now and then, I will pray for you. I will love you. And when I meet you, I will love you even more than I already do. Because you will love my son. And you’ll become my daughter.
1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE5nh5-IiHg
GOING TO THE CHAPEL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRaPcF_dKlA
A MOTHER’S PRAYER
Words by Bonnie J. Barbey Music by Kay Crawford
A PRECIOUS LITTLE BABY BOY TUCKED IN HIS MOTHER’S ARMS
LISTENS AS SHE ASKS HER LORD TO KEEP HIM SAFE FROM HARM
HE LOOKS AT HER IN WONDER, AS HE HEARS HIS MOMMA PRAY
FOR GOD TO BLESS THE BABY GIRL WHO WILL MARRY HIM SOMEDAY
Chorus
KEEP HER SAFE, MAKE HER STRONG
GUARD HER BODY, HEART, AND SOUL
AND LET HER LIFE BE FILLED WITH LOVE
LIGHT THE PATH THAT SHE’S BEGUN
GIVE HER FAITH, FOR SHE’S THE ONE
WHO WILL GROW INTO THE WOMAN WHO
WILL STAND BESIDE MY SON
WADING POOLS AND BIG BOY TOOLS, HIS BUSY HANDS AT PLAY
SOMEWHERE THERE’S OTHER TINY HANDS THAT WILL JOIN WITH HIS ONE DAY
MOM’S HEART GOES OUT ACROSS THE MILES AS SHE SEEKS HER FATHER’S FACE
PRAYERS RISE INTO HEAVEN, TRANSCENDING TIME AND SPACE
KEEP HER SAFE, MAKE HER STRONG
GUARD HER BODY, HEART, AND SOUL
AND LET HER LIFE BE FILLED WITH LOVE
LIGHT THE PATH THAT SHE’S BEGUN
GIVE HER FAITH, FOR SHE’S THE ONE
WHO WILL GROW INTO THE WOMAN WHO
WILL STAND BESIDE MY SON
A LOVELY BRIDE COMES DOWN THE AISLE, MOM’S EYES ARE FILLED WITH TEARS
HER SON IS JOINING WITH THE ONE SHE’S PRAYED FOR ALL THESE YEARS
SHE SEES GOD’S HAND, HIS PERFECT PLAN IN THE COUPLE STANDING THERE
SHE BREATHES A SIGH OF THANKS TO GOD WHO HEARD A MOTHER’S PRAYER
KEEP HER SAFE, MAKE HER STRONG
GUARD HER BODY, HEART, AND SOUL
AND LET HER LIFE BE FILLED WITH LOVE
LIGHT THE PATH THAT SHE’S BEGUN
GIVE HER FAITH, FOR SHE’S THE ONE
WHO HAS GROWN INTO THE WOMAN WHO
NOW STANDS BESIDE MY SON
BRIDGE
THE MARRIAGE VOWS ARE SPOKEN, EXCHANGING OF THE RINGS
AND SHE PRAYS, “OH FATHER, NOW I COME AND ASK FOR ONE MORE THING”
KEEP THEM SAFE, MAKE THEM STRONG
GUARD THEIR BODIES, HEARTS AND SOULS
AND LET THEIR HOME BE FILLED WITH LOVE
LIGHT THE PATH THEY’VE NOW BEGUN
GIVE THEM FAITH, FOR THEY’RE THE ONES
WHO WILL GROW INTO A COUPLE WHO WILL GLORIFY YOUR SON
LIGHT THE PATH THEY’VE NOW BEGUN
GIVE THEM FAITH, THEY’RE CHOSEN ONES
LET THEM GROW INTO THE COUPLE WHO WILL GLORIFY YOUR SON
Submitted by Anonymous
Love is the one treasure that multiplies by division.
It's the one gift that grows bigger the more you take from it....
It is the one business in which it pays to be an absolute spendthrift.
Give it away,
Throw it away,
Splash it over,
Empty your pockets,
Shake the basket,
Turn the glass upside down
and
tomorrow you will have more than ever.
