Rehearsing Marriage?
I'm getting ready to go upstairs and do a wedding rehearsal. I smile a bit knowing that while one can rehearse for a wedding you can't really rehearse for a marriage. The couple whose faces I will look into in a few minutes will be hopefully starry eyed idealists. That is the way it is and should be. What they do not yet know is how much work is needed for a marriage to make it.

Rehearsing for a wedding is easy. Marriage is hard and it is supposed to be. Rehearsing does not do much good. Marriage is learning as you go. If you "fall in love" what happens when you "get up?" That's called marriage.

So I'll have a prayer with them before they "rehearse" and if they remember what I told them earlier when I met with them I'll hope that they will learn early on that to stay married they'll need God, work, courage, and all the help they can get. Relationships are wonderful, messy, mysterious, and require investment and the learned skill of forgiveness.

Well, better quit writing and go "rehearse." This is interesting work I do, you know. I get to step into people's lives at all kinds of "pivotal" moments....births, baptisms, tragedy, questioning, instances of shared wonder, and death. It's interesting, joyful, challenging work this ministry we are "called into." And to tell you the truth it can't be rehearsed....
jody