wedding weekends

I love weddings. I mean LOVE them.

Pretty bride, speechless groom, and cake at the end. That’s all weddings ever were to me UNTIL I got married. For starters I married the most incredible man in the world. I think marriage is the most fun. I would recommend it to anyone (with the right person of course). So now, when I got to weddings I get so giddy. I am so excited for the journey that the couple is about to begin and all the things they will get to experience together.

I think another reason I like weddings now is because I am watching my best friends and family get married. It’s a lot more personal now and it feels like a big reunion.

This past weekend two people that I grew up with got married. Their wedding was beautiful and unique and a perfect reflection of who they are. I am so excited to see their relationship grow!

With both of them growing up in Durant I was blessed to see so many people that I know. You talk to people you thought you would be the best of friends with and sadly realize how little you have in common with them and on the flipside you catch up with old acquaintances and wonder why you were never closer. As we grow up, we change. That is inevitable. It really made me reflect on who I was in high school and who I am now.

I wouldn’t say I live with regret, but there are things I would have done differently for sure. I wish I wouldn’t have been afraid of so much. What did I really have to lose?

I look back and wonder how I treated people. Did I go out of my way to make everyone feel included? Did I love people even if they were different than I was? If I were to be honest with myself, the answer is easily no. Did I always try my hardest? I was so afraid of failure. Did I study hard for all my tests? Did I always give 100% at practice? No. Because when I didn’t do my best I could always use the excuse, well I didn’t study or I didn’t really try.

I hope that as an adult and a parent I can put my fear and selfishness aside. There are things today that I hesitate to do for the same thing that held me back six short years ago. I might fail if I try or what if I say hi to them and they don’t like me?  I can sometimes be my own worst enemy. BUT… I might succeed and I might meet lifelong friends. Life is so full of choices big and small. The quote ‘live each day like your last’ is so cliché and overused. I say it all the time as a joke but I never live it out. I can only dream of how great things might be if I did live like that. I know I would love more and laugh more and who doesn’t want that in life?

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:36-39

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than or people. Colossians 3:23