OUR VOWS. circa august 2008.

My vows to M:

As we have both said before…we could not have been ready to be married until this very moment.  No other time, in any other place could have held this one moment.  And it is in this moment that I commit myself to God and to you.

I promise to keep you safe.  I also promise to push us toward risk.

I promise to be your leader.  I also promise to be led.

I promise to hold you when you are in pain. And I promise to celebrate with you when you are filled with joy.

I promise never to leave when we fail one another.

I promise to remain resolved, steadfast and firm in the face of trouble.  And I also promise to keep my heart soft enough to cry.

I promise to stay true to our God.

Men and women have been standing in front of their families and friends in moments like these since the very beginning of time.

As I look at you and I look at your face, I can see the faces of all these women since the beginning of the story.  And if I go one step further I can see the face of God. 

It is written in the Book that while we keep God in our heart, He is revealed and reflected in our faces. 

I commit myself to you today.  And I commit my entire life to helping reveal the image of God that is reflected in your beautiful face. 

Margaret, today I commit my whole self, body and soul, to helping you become exactly who God created you to be.

M’s vows to me:

I love you. I have loved you since the very beginning. This is a journal entry dated 4 days after I hung out with you for the first time.

October 29th, 2000

Dear God,

Well, I have discovered that so far, I really like Blaine. He is a lot of the things I look for in a really great friend. But this is a charming boy, and I am afraid that I do indeed have a bit of a thing for him. It’s really weird, but I feel like he is someone I could be married to. That is so strange and feels so premature to even say. It’s just that he makes me feel like I am hanging from a jungle gym and I am swinging my legs trying to hold on. Except my eyes are closed and I am laughing really hard. And at any moment, I could lose my grip and go tumbling thousands of mile from the sky toward the ground. Scary and exciting. Leave it to me to feel that way about a boy. I love you and trust your plan for this relationship. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Love you as much as my imperfect little heart can!

AMEN

And here we stand. Less scary, more exciting. Blaine, thank you for picking me. I promise that I will chose you and chose to love you every day. Even when it’s hard and inconvenient. I promise to be faithful to you. I promise that I will stay. No matter what. I promise that, regardless of the cost, I will do every single thing that I can to pursue being healthy with you. Whatever it takes. I promise that as you practice leading us, and turn around to see if I am really there with you, I will really be there with you. I promise to offer the best part of myself to you first. Before my writing, before my job, before my friends. I promise to continue to become more of who God has created me to be, so that I can be the best wife to you that I can. I promise to be a good steward of the gifts God has given me, even if it means change and risk. I promise to risk with you. I promise to trust you. I promise to dream with you, big wild expansive huge dreams. I promise to make a family with you. And the best thing I have to offer you, a gift that God has given me…already expressed through hours of talking to God and pages and pages of journals… prayer. I promise to most ardently and constantly and joyfully pray for you and on your behalf for you and the desires of your heart.

And the only heart that I will seek after more than yours, is God’s. And I will do it with our best interest and God’s will at the center of my heart. I love you to the moon and the bottom of the sea. I love you to the top of the Space Needle and the bottom of Puget Sound. I love you to the top of the Sears the tower and the bottom of Lake Michigan. And wherever else God takes this story of you and me. I love you as much as my imperfect little heart can!