Is your love "real"?

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A Wedding Blessing for Blake & Savannah – Dec 30, 2006

EXCERPT FROM THE VELVETEEN RABBIT
~ By Margery Williams ~

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "But when you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get all loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Savannah & Blake, may you both be committed to love each other till and when and after

 you’ve become very shabby, your hair has been loved off,

you’ve become loose in the joints, and your eyes begin to droop.

May you realize that “real isn’t how you’re made,” but “it’s a thing that happens” to you…

when you’ve been loved for a “long, long time,”

not because you’re fun “to play with” any more

nor because you’re cute,

but “real” happens after loving through the good times and the bad, the hard times just as well as the easy… till you “become.”

Sometimes “real” is hard, sometimes it hurts, but may you really love to really become Real.

Know that seasons will come…… AND they will GO! (God says that there is a time and a season for every thing).. note the keyword “season” here… for seasons come… but they only last for its season.

May you weather the wind and the rain, the storms, the heat, and the drought

until you get past your season… for God makes everything beautiful in its time… if you’ll let Him.

Blake, just as you are a soldier in the army, serving your country and fighting for its freedom; may you and Savannah both be soldiers, mighty warriors in God’s army. Serving Him well and knowing that He is with you and fights for you in the battle. Realizing the truth that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against an evil darkness and its powers. Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. When things get hard - fight for each other, fight for your marriage, fight for your sons, and for your daughters. Life is a fight… may you win its battle!

May God be able to say of you two as He once said of King David that you both are men after His Own heart. 

May you be blessed with a home filled with children… sharing God’s story from generation to generation.

May everything that you undertake to do be in service to God and in obedience to Him.

Seeking Him and working wholeheartedly to bring Him Glory.

May you live together building the sanctuary of your home into a temple built for His name.

May God Himself be “a wall of fire around it, and may He be its glory within.”

May you both be God’s Lights in a dark world.. and a Hope for those that don’t know Him.

May you see in each other the song that waits to be sung and seek to bring out its music.

When you talk about your spouse, may you color your pictures of each other as beautiful, and frame them, share them with others, and look at them often.

May you:

Listen.

Dance.

Laugh.

Sing.

Love.

And Forgive

……… A LOT!

It takes the bigger man to say “I’m sorry” first… may you BOTH be BIG!

May you always be partners in the same dance... committed to writing your stories in the same book.

The Skin Horse in The Velveteen Rabbit story was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, most of the hairs on his tail had been pulled out, as he explained to the Rabbit what "Real" is.  "The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always." May you both be committed to becoming “Real”… and may your “Real” last together for always.

Savannah & Blake, you two together… with God first… Three in One acCord. 

(Click to read: The Velveteen Rabbit in its entirety online. It shows a good description of what "real" is and what true "love" is supposed to be.)

This is old... something written for a friend years ago... but after my previous post about my parents, this has been resonating inside my mind. Finally, I thought I'd just share it........

And Bridget, if you are reading this, I'd thought you'd love to see it yourself to remind us all again of that precious moment.... watching and witnessing as your child vowed "to love and to cherish" from this day forward! And woe! "Cherish" is its own precious word!!!!!!!! One worth pondering and meditating upon! All that have previous taken the vow should ask themselves, "Do I still C-H-E-R-I-S-H the one that I've wed?"! Woe... so love it!

• Cherish: to feel love for; to care for; to treasure. To be fond of; to be attached to. To hold dear; to embrace with interest; to indulge; to encourage; to foster, to promote; to treat with tenderness and affection; to nurture with care; to protect and aid. To keep or cultivate with care; to entertain or harbor in the mind deeply and resolutely... savoring, loving, adoring.

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