This weekend we celebrated Genna and Rob at their wedding in Pittsburgh. Genna is from Paden City, WV (just south of New Martinsville) and was one of my mom's Young Life girls. When she started at WVU I hooked her up with the girls at "The Oyster." The rest is history. Genna was a leader for us when we moved back to Morgantown. She is a real gem and so much fun. I'm thankful to know her. We don't know Rob, but everyone that does has nothing but amazing things to say about him. They seem like they are going to make a great team! Congratulations, Genna & Rob.
Sunday afternoon, we celebrated Sarah and Jimmy with a wedding shower. They are two of our leaders and are getting married in December. They will be our final wedding of the 2012 wedding tour. Ben and I are doing their premarriage counseling together. Usually Ben does the counseling on his own for the couples he marries. It's been a great thing for us to do together. Which is kind of funny because we've been in one of those seasons of life just being life and not really connecting well. It's all about putting in the extra effort and sometimes that's just hard. We had dinner and a random drive around town about 2 weeks ago that really cleared the air, set out some expectations and got us on the same page. That feels so good!
We are reading this book with Sarah and Jimmy. It's great! Totally recommend it. Not as a "how to" book about marriage, but a "this is what marriage should look like" book. I will give the disclaimer that sometimes I feel like he could say things with fewer words. Otherwise, it's a great read and has been most excellent for us to read together.
Two thoughts from the book that I have totally experienced but never really seen in writing (which is nice to know that your marriage might be going the right direction!).
"The reason [marriage] must have priority is because the power of marriage. Marriage has the power to set the course of your life as a whole. If your marriage is strong, even if all the circumstances in your life around you are filled with trouble and weakness, it won't matter. You will be able to move out into the world in strength. However, if your marriage is weak, even if all the circumstances in your life around you are marked by success and strength, it won't matter. You will move out into the world in weakness. Marriage has that kind of power - the power to set the course of your whole life."
and
". . . perhaps the most damaging statements that have ever been said about us are those things we have said about ourselves to ourselves . . . But now into your life comes someone who has the power to overturn all the accumulated verdicts that have ever been passed upon you by others or by you yourself. Marriage puts into your spouse's hand a massive power to reprogram your own self-appreciation. He or she can overturn anything previously said about you, to a great degree redeeming the past. The love and affirmation of your spouse has the power to heal you of many of the deepest wounds. Why? If all the world says you are ugly, but your spouse says you are beautiful, you feel beautiful . . . To be highly esteemed by someone you highly esteem is the greatest thing in the world."
