6.4.23 Wedding Day Toast of Gratitude

Clayton and Amanda,  here we are on your wedding day celebrating! Let me start with a few words of gratitude:

Jennifer, thank you for such a godly young woman. You’ve raised her well as a woman of honor and one of many passions and one love. Yes, I prayed for her and for you for years, but you did the hard work, so today I offer my gratitude.

To all of you here – family and friends – who have stood up for our kids and loved them, prayed with them, held them accountable and been their friends. Thank You! It is no small thing. The book of Proverbs (verse 27:19) tells us that a mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kinds of friends he chooses. I am So glad you chose our kids as friends and so glad that our kids chose you!

Thanks To our good God for the blessing of eternal life, love and community!

Marriages, like births, mark a new beginning. The day I drove home from the hospital after Clayton was born was a new beginning for me. To be a parent of a son seemed a bit overwhelming but knowing the father Clayton had and could easily emulate assuaged my fears.

Today we stand at another new beginning as Clayton & Amanda start a brand new family. Like me, you are probably filled with a feeling of being excited at it all, hoping to take it all in and not forget this moment, and living with wonder as you anticipate your new life together.

Clayton, today is the most special day of your 27 years of life with the most important and enduring commitment you will ever make.  Your bride walked down the aisle, radiating beauty both inside and out. Today this woman for whom I have long prayed became your wife, promising to encourage you and love you, for better or worse. You are married! This specific God ordained pairing of 2 people claiming Jesus as their Savior joining together to live for Christ for the rest of their days is rather amazing!

Clayton, I could not be more proud of the man you are today. Kind and sensitive.  Smart and talented.  Humorous, practical, go-with-the-flow guy, easygoing and gameplaying positive outlooker and godly son – my beautiful joy and gift.

Clayton, I also want to take this chance to publicly say thank you for teaching me more than I could ever teach you. Both my kids both modeled the joy of relationship, laughed easily and obeyed mostly and made good choices and friends.

The best fairy tales are the ones that are true. Once upon a time, almost 43 years ago I made the same covenant with your dad and I have learned a lot of things along the way, but now is not the time for advice. You won’t remember any of it at this point anyway so let me bless you as you begin your once- upon-a-time true fairy tale story. With your eyes open please receive this gift.

Clayton and Amanda, I bless you and your new life.

• May you experience God’s abundant love and boundless grace in your marriage always. The two of you will bring joy into the world.
• May your home know peace.
• May your marriage be a lighthouse of hope so that together you will shine as a beacon to a world that doubts that hope and love are real.
• May the mystery of oneness unfold before you with profound beauty and strength.
• May you be blessed in your love for God and continually grow in your grasp of how high and deep and wide that love for you is.
• May you live all the days of your life.
• May you live happily ever after.
• May the love you share be unbreakable and unshakeable when the enemy of love tries to destroy the covenant you established today.

Clayton and Amanda – today is the day of your marriage that you will love each other the least. Think about it. You love each other today with your whole heart but every day forward your love will deepen and grow more and more until it is richer and deeper than you could ever imagine, as any married person here will confirm.

They say the last words are the best remembered.  So, in the tradition of our family whenever someone left the house we gave the following blessing as I do now that you have left home to start a new home and lifelong adventure: Clayton & Amanda Mohler, Go with God ….because God always goes with me!

I love you both. Congratulations!