Marriage Vows
I was married to my beautiful wife Emily on June fourth of this year. Below are my vows to her:
As a man, it is my desire to love you. As a Christian, it is also my charge to love you as Christ loves the church. I promise to love you with all of my heart, mind, and soul for as long as I live. I will make every effort to esteem you, appreciate you, listen and understand you, care for you, encourage you, and protect you. I will do my best to make you laugh, surprise you with thoughtfulness, and to make your heart glad. I will stand behind you in your moments of strength, to support and encourage, and I will stand before you in your moments of weakness, to protect and defend. I will strive to be patient when resolving our frustrations. I will strive to be gentle and kind in the way I treat you. I will seek to celebrate your successes rather than envy them. I will ask God to keep me humble when my pride seeks to come between us. I will forgive you when you err, and I will apologize when I do the same. I will do my best to take care of you, to give you the benefit of the doubt, to find joy in your joys, and pain in your pains. I will never give you up or forsake you, no matter the cost or the obstacle. I promise to seek God always, and I will give my utmost to be the husband He has called me to be for you. I promise to love you as no one else ever has, and as no one else ever will.
By taking you as my wife, I recognize that God has loaned to me his work of art — you are an intricately crafted, precisely formed masterpiece. God has entrusted me with a one-of-a-kind creation, and I will value you and treasure you for all the days of my life.
