"Goodness Gracious!"

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.  (NLT, Matthew 6:33)

The past week in terms of wedding preparations has been filled with blessings to do with the guestbook, the cake, and our monthly prayer meeting for January.

Last week, my guestbook arrived in the mail from Shutterfly!  I was excited to see how it turned out and nervous to see if there are any glaring mistakes, such as uneven alignment and typographical errors.  I eagerly flipped through the pages, careful not to wrinkle them.  Alas, I did find a typo in one of my favourite pages with one of key Bible verses.  On page says, "Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good" (so far so good) and the opposing page, "His faithful loves endures forever."  My heart broke.  I thought, ironically, the wedding is officially NOT PERFECT!  Noooo!  It was quite disappointing to have this ONE detail to annoy me.  Thankfully, the font I chose to display the verse makes the typo inconspicuous.  The extra S can be covered with a small star sticker, I guess.  Finally, a short while later, I accepted the mistake.  Maybe this is God's way of bringing attention to this verse, that God is good, and that his love endures forever!!!  I believe God can turn our mistakes around and use it for his kingdom; certainly, this typo would be a story to tell, for one.  Indeed it became so.

I didn't mention that when the parcel that contained the guestbook arrived, it also contained someone else's Shutterfly order.  It was addressed to a person in Port Moody.  I wrote, "Sent to wrong address" on it and dropped it off at the nearest mailbox.  I e-mailed Shutterfly's customer service department to let them know what happened.  I receive an reply with them apologizing and asking if I received my order correctly.  I said I did but also mentioned that I had made a typo (I was still kind of sad about it), but it wasn't a big deal.  Shutterfly e-mailed back and stated their dedication to 100% customer satisfaction and said they had put a credit on my account enough for a photobook and shipping so I can correct my typo and have my photobook re-printed!!!!!!!  AND because of the inconvenience of having someone else's order shipped to me, they gave me a full refund for my original order (which was only the cost of shipping because I had gotten it for free)!!!!!!!  A customized $7 photobook for guests to sign was good enough for me, but no, I am now even more blessed to have TWO free guestbooks to use for the wedding (I don't have to return the first one)!!!!!!!  I thought, this wedding is even more PERFECT now!!!!  Praise the Lord, He indeed IS good!!!!!!  How gracious is he, turning my mistake into an overflow of blessings.  

The second thing is about the wedding cake.  The cake is probably the least of our wedding day priorities and the thing that excites us the least as self-proclaimed not-dessert people (though Darryn would argue that I am a dessert person because apparently I always ask for it).  We would have been fine with store-bought cake mix and buttercream icing with the Lego groom and bride cake topper, and we would have been okay with having one of our family members make it for us, and we will just cover the cost of ingredients.  We don't eat cake very often, you see!  And in the last wedding we went to, hardly anyone ate the cake or the mini-cupcakes even though they were good!  Prudence messages me from Hong Kong and tells me that she and Eva are starting a cake making businesses for weddings and special events, and they could do our cake!  I am excited for them, but told her about how Darryn and I feel about the wedding cake.  I told her I'd talk to him and let her and Eva know.  

I had not even had a chance to talk to Darryn yet but the next day, Prudence messages me again and said she talked to Eva and they decided to do our cake for us within our budget!!!!!!!  That's a miracle!  I wasn't even searching for a baker--I wasn't even planning on approaching relatives to bake us a cake until the month before the wedding--and now, six months before, we have bakers whom I know and trust to make us a yummy AND pretty cake!!!  I didn't even have to put in any effort, and God knows our budget and He provides!  And it's not because we deserve this cake, but because God is good!!!!!!

So, coming into our January prayer meeting--Renee and Kevin have committed to praying with us about our wedding/marriage prep--I was in a great mood.  I was even more excited because we had Patty (bridesmaid) and Christine (MOH) join us for this month's meeting!  It's really nice to have other people join us and support us in prayer; this is only the second time we've had others come since we started meeting in October even though I keep inviting all the groomsmen and bridesmaids.  I was really appreciative of this month's meeting because, even though those who were there go to different churches or are in different places in our walk, everyone fully participated in the prayers.  And I thought, how good is this, that we come together and gather in God's name.  It was a good fellowship session!  

My experience reminds me of this verse, which I had originally put in a graphic design image used as an announcement about our wedding theme/colours.  It foretold what I have experienced this past week:

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.  (2 Cor 9:8)

God provides for our needs in his timely way and he blesses us not so we can live like kings and queens, but so we can do his kingdom's work.  =)

Embracing Trials

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.  And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."  Romans 5:1-5

So sometimes when I hit rough patches in my week I think, "it never just rains, it pours" (much like this week actually was).  The first week as a service technician was busy and all over the place and I still found myself doing install work instead of just service.  Problem after problem compounded upon each other until I just thought it was going to be too annoying, or too stupid to deal with.  Then suddenly everything cleared up and it was the weekend, and that little glimmer of hope that helped me through the week paid off.  Knowing that if I persevere through troubles and I did the right thing instead of ignoring the problem or passing it off, I would be better off for it.  The Romans verse coincidentally was the devotional verse of the day, reminding me that God never gives us problems so that we can fail, that He never puts us in situations that try our patience for fun.  It is always for a reason, whether we realize it or not, that through it all, we will grow closer to Him and rely on Him to do the right thing and to humbly accept all that is thrown our way.

Wedding Day Uniqueness and Perfection?

Matthew 6:25-34
English Standard Version (ESV)

Do Not Be Anxious

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[a] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Footnotes:

a.  Matthew 6:27 Or a single cubit to his stature; a cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
(from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6%3A25-34&&version=ESV)

For some couples, the pressure is on to make their wedding day perfect and unique.   I've watched too many episodes of Four Weddings, where four brides attend each others' weddings and vote on which was done best.  The winning couple with the best score for dress, venue, food and overall experience then gets a destination honeymoon prize.  Weddings featured on Four Weddings range from simple and intimate backyard get-togethers to the big, lavish bash at a mansion.  Some weddings have colour or design themes like chevron patterns and colours of the rainbow, while others are quirky and incorporate themes such as the circus, Christmas in July, Phantom of the Opera, and even Halloween.

In the early stages of engagement, the pressure was on for me as I subconsciously subscribed to the culture's idea of bridal entitlement to a uniquely perfect wedding.  The double-edged sword for me is my meticulousness and attention to detail for the sake of perfection, and therefore, satisfaction, and I wanted that for the wedding day.  I would do what it takes so that it would be perfect and I can be happy and people would be impressed!  Thus, I scoured the interwebs for resources and ideas as well as talk to others who have been to many weddings.  But doing so made me realize that it's almost impossible to do a one-of-a-kind wedding because I'd be getting my ideas from other people who've done it before!  Futile is my endeavour.

Thankfully sooner than later, I came to realize that it doesn't matter if I don't impress my guests by including something no one has ever thought of doing before in the history of weddings.  It doesn't matter if it's been done before; it doesn't matter if my wedding is "unique" or not.  In fact, if I'm using ideas from other Christian couples, then sign me up, because I want to take part in traditions that are acts of worship to God, too!

Now, the priority for Darryn and I is to glorify the ultimate guest of honour at our wedding, our Heavenly Father, in small or big ways, as well as on the days leading up to it and after it.  I don't need to wrack my brains out trying to make everything about that day perfect, because time and again I know these truths: God is in ultimate control, and importantly, that He is good.  Jeremiah 29:11 captures this:  "...For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."  Yes, God has the best in store for his children!   And even though I am concerned with the majesty piece for the wedding, I remember that God delights in my faith, not my works:  "For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not through your own doing; it is the gift from God, so that none may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).  And about gifts: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down form the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadows" (James 1:17).  So heck, the best thing for me to do to ensure that this wedding is unique and perfect is to lift it up to God.  He makes things beautiful, like the lilies in the field, yet they neither toil nor spin.  =)