Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Weddings and Worry

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
-Philippians 4: 6-7

You know, with the planning of a wedding comes a lot of stress. And I’ll be honest it’s more stress for Kristie than for me. I’m sure that many of you (youth or not) have had deadlines to meet, limited time and limited resources. It seems that the more Kristie and I worry about the wedding the worse things look. However, we have discovered a way to relieve some of the stress. First, we had to give things over to God. We had to come to the realization that no matter what happens or how it looks at the end of our wedding day we will be married, and that’s all that really matters. Second, we had to stop looking at empty checklists and had to start attacking the list piece by piece. Trying to plan the entire wedding at once is impossible, but trying to accomplish a handful of goals each week is much simpler.

In life it’s easy to become overwhelmed. This is partly because we fall into a do-it-yourself way of thinking. We want to be independent. We want things done our own way. In order to we have the abundant life (John 10:10) that Christ offers us we have to get out of the do-it-yourself way of thinking and get into the rely-on-God way of thinking. As Christians, if we are going to make God number one on our list of importance then we have to become dependant on Him in our day to day living and stop worrying about the things in this world that won’t last.

3 comments:

Russell Purvis said...

Dude, we both know about the worry thing. If you guys stick it out with the best interest of each other in sight, you guys will do fine.

Mindy said...

I know exactly what you're talking about/going through. I'm just thankful that for ya'll .. you're both there to plan your wedding! It was a little more difficult without Joseph there to help me.. if not with the planning itself.. to help keep some stress down. When I was reading this tho... you know what came to my mind? My childhood moto.. "I do wit!" haha.. talk about the "do-it-yourself way"! :p I do agree with Russell tho :)ya'll will be fine :)

JackNathan said...

The wedding planning with Sarah and myself was hectic. Sarah kept worrying and I am one of the most easy going people when it comes to planning. We seemed to clash because she wanted to worry and I wanted her to stop worrying. I kept telling her exactly what you said. At the end of the day, no matter how things go, we will still be married. That, brother, is wise words. Details are nice, but if details make you forget where your focus needs to be (namely entering covenant with each other and God and celebrating His faithfulness) then details and planning become quite evil in fact. Keep the right focus, surround yourself with helpers, and rest in the knowledge that God will help you with the wedding planning. Love you bro.