We Vow

I received our wedding pictures this weekend!!! What a treat!!!

I thought I would share a few of them here along with something very close to my heart - our vows. Luke and I decided to write our own vows to each other and I'm so glad we did. Hearing what Luke wrote for me was one of my favourite parts of the day! :)

Trying not to cry during Luke's vows! (I did anyways!)

Reading Luke my vows

Luke's vows:

Alyssa,

     I never knew I could love someone as much as I love you. You are the most amazing person I have ever met! From he moment I met you, I knew you were special and that I had to pursue you. I've been praying my entire life for God to reveal my true love and He has in you. I love your warm and gentle spirit. I love the way you make me laugh, even if it's because you are teasing me. I even love you when you are angry with me. You are such a beautiful mystery to me and I'm overwhelmingly captivated by you.

     In front of God and our friends and family, I vow to love you and pursue you with all my heart. I vow to find new ways every day to express my love for you. I vow to make you laugh and be there for you when you cry. I vow to never take you for granted. I vow to passionately protect and serve you and put your needs above my own. I vow to be the loving and faithful husband you deserve. I'm so honoured to get to spend the rest of my life loving you.

Alyssa's vows:

     Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamt of meeting the man of my dreams - my prince. I wanted him to pursue my heart and valiantly fight to win my affection. I stand here today, still that little girl at heart, and in awe of the man that God has chosen for me.
     As we embark on what I know will be the most exciting, most challenging, and most beautiful adventure of our lives, I offer to you my heart - my fervent adoration, my truest respect, and all the depths of my soul.
     I vow to love you more and more with each passing day. To fill your life with warmth and tenderness in the happiest times and ever more so in the hardest times. And when those hard times come, I will take your hand and walk with you through the valley, ever looking to Christ for our strength. I promise to keep Him at the centre of my life, and of this marriage, so that together we may enjoy life to its full.
     I vow to be your friend and confidant - to stand behind the decisions you make and to wholly support you in all that you do. I will respect you for who you are, not who I want you to be.
     Luke Kleczynski, you are my answer to prayer. A servant, a leader, a man with the ability to love selflessly and unconditionally - a faithful model of Christ.
     These things I commit to you, no matter what lies before us, for now and forever.

First Dance

Forever.

The Greatest

Well, this week was not good for blog posting! :) It was a crazy week (just like yours, probably!) On the whole this week, one topic continued to come to my mind. Childlikeness.

Not child-ISH-ness, but child-LIKE-ness.

Can I first just say how much I am loving the whole "being married" thing?? It's like living with your best friend ALL THE TIME!!

I actually asked a dear friend this week - "When am I supposed to start feeling like I'm married?" Because when people ask me how it feels to be a "married woman" I truly don't know what to say! I mostly just feel super blessed to finally be living with my best friend. I don't feel like I'm "married" to Luke, I just feel like we're walking through life together in the most amazing way possible. I suppose this is a good thing, and as cheesy and cliche as it sounds, I am honoured to be married to my bff!

This past week we decided that in the midst of the craziness, we were going to have a "best friend night" - just like the sleepovers you have as a little kid. I made baked macaroni and cheese for dinner and brownies for dessert. We sat on the couch and talked for a while and played some games on my computer (I seriously LOVE online tetris!!) And then we settled in with some popcorn and watched the classic Disney movie Peter Pan! We stayed up late (as sad as it is, 11:30 is pretty late for us now!), we ate some comfort food, we laughed at Captain Hook and that crocodile, and we just enjoyed each other's company for the night. It was wonderful to have a night where we didn't allow ourselves to think about the pressures of the next day or what we "needed" to get done.

Jesus calls us to be child-like. In Matthew 18 verses 3 and 4 He says that we must come to Him as little children.

But even more so, what are the characteristics of a child that makes them the greatest in the Kingdom?
Humility - Jesus comments on how the little children are marked by humility, as we should be.
Innocence and Purity - though born into this world wicked and sinful, children still embody what it means to be pure and innocent.
Trust - unless they have been taught otherwise, children will naturally believe what other people tell them, especially those in authority.
Small - recognition of our own insignificance as compared to the infinite glory of God.
Eagerness - they yearn for more.

I pray that our marriage would be child-like.
Not that we will be eating junk food and watching movies all the time - although it is a refreshing treat every once in a while! But that together we would be marked by these things :
the ability to unabashedly put our trust in God and in each other,
humility when we do something wrong, but especially when we do something right,
the innocence and purity and delicate beauty of a marriage surrendered,
continually giving glory to God and not trying to steal it for ourselves,
and the hunger and passion to pursue all this and more.

And with that, I thought I would share a few pictures from our honeymoon. 
This is Luke and Alyssa - being child-like! :)

Making Mrs. Potato Heads in Downtown Disney

Mr. Pretzel Head

The Dumbo ride - a classic!

Everyone's favourite mouse!

What Am I Getting Myself Into?

When I used to make the two and a half hour trek from where I lived to where Luke lived, I used to listen to audiobooks to pass the time. I recently finished this gem and have been looking for a new one. I had the rare privilege of driving down to Three Rivers by myself yesterday and since I don't have a new audiobook yet, I decided to break out some cds from my high school days for the half hour journey. When this song (give it a listen!) came up, I had to repeat it (slightly surprised that I still remembered all the words!) :) Now, I know this song is talking about this guy's relationship towards God, but I couldn't help but think about what this meant for Luke and I.

The main line in this song is "do you know what you are getting yourself into?"

One thing I noticed throughout our engagement - when people find out you're engaged, suddenly EVERYONE has marriage advice for you (whether you asked for it or not!) I kid, because most of the advice people offered us was pretty solid. However, we also noticed that for some reason people enjoyed telling us how difficult the first year would be. How things will "change" after the honeymoon is over (or at least once you're out of what is commonly referred to as the "honeymoon phase"). How, shortly after the wedding, we'll start to see each other in a different light - a negative light.

One of my most cherished pieces of advice came from a woman I barely know at church one week. She said not to listen to those people.

Is marriage tough? Sometimes.
Does it take work to keep it together? Always.
Will your life be the same as it was when you were single? Never again.
But is it possible for the first year of your marriage to be the best year of your life rather than the worst? Yes. And it should be!
[This woman and her husband have been married more than fifteen years and are still "honeymooning"!]

Just because marriage is an adjustment does not mean your first year has to be as hard as some people say it will be. By continuing to keep God at the centre of your relationship I believe you can avoid much of the "first year heartbreak" and "post-honeymoon stress disorder".

But back to the song - "do you know what you are getting yourself into?"

We definitely knew what we were getting ourselves into - I got married to the chief of sinners!! [And HE married the chief-ess!]

I have to admit that as far as marriage goes, I'm pretty unexperienced. But how about relating to fellow sinners? I have definitely done that! :)

I have to remember that Luke is a sinner. He has to remember that I'm one too. Have we (in our short six weeks of covenant bliss) frustrated each other? Annoyed each other? Hurt each others feelings? Yes, yes, and yes! Because we're sinners and that's what we do! But we're sinners who love God and love each other and we know that the two of us together is better than the two of us apart. That is what marriage is all about.

How about the last line of the song? "I LOVE YOU and THAT'S what you are getting yourself into." Beautiful.

My New Ministry

I believe that every Christian is involved in ministry - no matter what age or what is going on in their lives, there is a ministry that they are called to. For me, it was always relational - from helping to lead Bible studies for "churched girls" to co-leading an outreach club for "unchurched girls" - this was where I belonged and I loved it! Now that I have moved to a new city in a new country and started attending a new church, I deeply miss these ministries. I almost feel like I haven't even been "involved" in anything for a couple months now. But that could not be further from the truth.

I have been called to one of the most beautiful, most challenging, and most rewarding ministries of all - being a wife.

My mom gave me a little book of prayers a couple months before the wedding. I strive to wake up early with Luke (6:30am does NOT come easy to me, and I have to admit I have failed in this area more than I thought I would). But I know this is a valuable time for me and even more so for him. I know that when I make the effort to get up early with him and pray over him with one of the prayers in this book, it is so much more intimate than waking up after he's gone and reading the prayer aloud to myself. Less intimate, and thus I can't help but feel, less effective.

Getting up early to spend time with him. As Luke's wife, this is my new ministry.

Right now, Luke's job is very high stress in addition to long hours. We were hoping he would be able to switch positions before we got married, but God has other plans for us. Luke asked me the other day if I prayed for him while he was at work. I had to tell him (a little ashamed of myself) that I pray for him in the morning, but not throughout the day, and I realized that somehow I had thought that once a day was enough! Luke faces an enormous amount of battles at work - frustration, impatience, anxiety - things that are impossible to overcome without God.

Covering him with prayer all day, every day. As Luke's wife, this is my new ministry.

Unpacking. I literally shudder at the thought. There are still so many stinkin boxes in our house!! I currently have two baskets filled with clean laundry that I have no where to put because I'm having a hard time trying to organize what little closet space we have. I've been slowly but surely working on this, but I know I need to step it up. I don't like that Luke has to come home to boxes and piles of laundry (albeit clean laundry!) after a long day at work. I know that this is the place we are in right now, and I count it as a blessing that we have clean clothes and a new washer and dryer for the dirty ones! But I am so looking forward to finally being "settled"! :)

Creating a place of rest and a haven for him to come home to. As Luke's wife, this is my new ministry.

I know that women have been home-making for centuries and many excel and many do not. The home-maker role is very new to me and one of my deepest desires is to serve Luke (and by doing so, also serve God) WELL. As I continue to go through this learning process, I will choose to "count it all joy"!

Thank you God for entrusting me with this ministry!

Just the Beginning . . .

For over a month now my life has been filled with a joy unspeakable - the kind of joy only to be found within the tender sanctity of two people committing the rest of their lives to one another. "My heart is glad and my whole being rejoices" [Psalm 16:9] Only someone as good as our God could imagine something like this up!

I don't ever want to forget these days. This is a quiet place for my reflections on marriage. On learning how to become a godly wife. About my stumbles and my victories and my unspeakable joy in the midst of it all.

Thank you God for creating marriage - it is already more than I could ever have imagined!