Pete & Helen

05-30-210

Shilo Inn Gazebo, Richland, WA

Photos courtesy of Emerald Photography

Welcome, family, friends and loved ones. We are gathered here today to celebrate the wedding of Pete and Helen. We share in this formal commitment they make to one another, offer our love and support, so they may start their married life together surrounded by the people dearest and most important to them.

Pete and Helen thank you for your presence today and ask for your blessing, encouragement and lifelong support. Pete and Helen have asked me to read the blessings of Deuteronomy:

Pete, God has ordained the man as the spiritual head, as the responsible provider, and as the initiator of love in this relationship. By His enablement, your strength must be Helen’s protection, your character her boast and pride, and you must so live that she will find in you the haven for which the heart of a woman truly longs.

Helen, it is God's purpose that you be a loving wife, that you respond to Pete’s love in tenderness with a deep sense of understanding, through a great faith in Christ who brought you together. It is His desire that you have that inner beauty of soul that never fades; that eternal youth that is found in holding fast the things that never age.

Pete and Helen, Christian marriage is not living merely for each other; it is two uniting and joining hands to serve God. Seek His kingdom first, and His righteousness, and He will add all other things to you. Do not expect perfection from each other, perfection belongs solely to God. You need not minimize each other's weaknesses, but always be swift to praise and magnify each other's points of comeliness and strength and see each other through kind and patient eyes.

God will lead you into such situations as will bless you and develop your characters as you walk together. He will give you enough tears to keep you tender, enough hurts to keep you compassionate, enough of failure to keep your hands clenched tightly in His, and enough success to make you sure you walk with Him. May you never take each other's love for granted, but always experience that wonder that exclaims "Out of all this world you have chosen me." When life is done, may you be found then as now, hand in hand, still thanking God for each other. May you ever serve Him happily, faithfully, together until you return to glory or until at last one shall lay the other into His arms. And all this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Pete, have you in the quiet hours of your companionship considered what is your Christian duty as a husband?

Helen, have you in the quiet hours of your companionship considered what is your Christian duty as a wife?

In token that your hearts are joined together in love, will you please join your hands.

Pete, this woman is to be your wife. She has given you one of the most sacred things under heaven: a woman's life and a woman's love. You may bring her great joy or cause her deep sorrow. It is not what you bring her in a material way that will make true happiness--riches without love are nothing. The gift without the giver is bare. The practice of those virtues as husband that you have shown as her lover will keep her heart won to your heart. If you will please repeat the vow of this love to Helen after me:

I Pete,  take you Helen, to be my wedded wife. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.

Pete, do you have a ring for your bride? Please place the ring, a symbol of your love for Helen on her hand, and say, “With this ring, I thee wed”. 

 Helen, this man whom you hold by the hand is to be your husband. On your life, your love and devotion he will lean for strength and inspiration. He is going to look to you for encouragement, for cheerfulness and confidence. No matter what the world may say or think, people may forget him, lose confidence in him, and turn their backs upon him, but you must not. May your life and your love be the inspiration that will constantly lead him to greater dependence upon our Lord Jesus Christ.

I, Helen, take you Pete, to be my wedded husband. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, 'till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.

Helen, do you have a ring for your groom? Please place the ring, a symbol of your love for Pete on his hand, and repeat after me, “With this ring, I thee wed”.

Pete, Helen, you have now consented to enter the Estate of Matrimony, and have given and pledged your faith to each other in the presence of God, your family and friends. It is with great honor and by the virtue of the authority vested in me to pronounce you husband and wife.

Pete, you may kiss your bride!

Family and friends, I present to you Mr. & Mrs. Lemons!