Vows and Cows
Chantel has written several beautiful posts capturing the love and happiness of her wedding day. But I just had to tell you about two of my favorite details from Scott and Chantel’s wedding…the vows and the cows!
At the reception, everyone laughed when Scott presented Chantel’s dad with twelve cows…little stuffed ones, that is! It was a reference to Chantel being a “twelve-cow wife” in the spirit of the legend of Johnny Lingo’s eight-cow wife. And it made this farmer’s wife think of all our joking references to my being a so-many-ton wife—ton of hay, that is, since Merritt traded hay for my ring!
But the part of Scott and Chantel’s wedding ceremony I hope I never forget was a line from the beautiful bride’s vows to her new husband. The word picture of a wife’s heart being the graveyard for her husband’s faults and mistakes is one I want to not only remember, but live out in my marriage.
I take you, Scott, to be my lawfully wedded husband, my partner and my companion in life and my one true love.
I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you, honor and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together in this life, and staying by your side through sunshine and storms. My heart is the graveyard for your faults and mistakes and by God’s grace I will always do my best to uplift and encourage you in your best.
I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, my all, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.
I take you, Scott, to be my lawfully wedded husband, my partner and my companion in life and my one true love.
Photos by Bethany Tiss
*sniff* how beautiful!
Wow! How beautiful! I want that (by that I mean the highlighted section) to be true of me in all my relationships. I want people to know that I will always look for the good in them and try to uplift them and help them reach their full potential. Wonderful vows Chantel!
Trusting in His Faithfulness,
Maiden Princess
Thanks for that post….it brought tears to my eyes, so needed it was. As a bride of a year and a half, I’ve been struggling with forgiveness and gettting over sins of my husband’s past, sometimes wanting to lash out and hurt him because his past actions (before we met) have hurt me.
I never thought about my heart being the place that can bury and hide his past mistakes–because of God’s forgiveness for him, I can use my love to bury the shame and hurt for him as well. Thank you for a timely and touching post that has helped me this day.
The vows are unbelievably beautiful – thank you for sharing them … !
aw, very well put Chantel.
Chantel,
Your vows are beautiful!! You truly captured the unconditional love with those words.
May God continue to bless your marriage richly!
Lots of love,
Samantha
*happy sigh* That is absolutely beautiful. Did you write your own vows then? It’s so encouraging to see the marriages on YLCF– respect for husbands, glory for God. 🙂
Blessings,
Laura
http://only-annegirl.blogspot.com
Laura- We didn’t completely write them ourselves. I’d say they are partly “original” (Scott wrote the sweetest thing that he wanted to say before he said his vows. 🙂 ) and partly composite of different parts of vows that already expressed what we wanted. I modified mine quite a bit, and so did Scott, but in different ways.
*happy sigh* That is absolutely beautiful. Did you write you own vows then? It’s so encouraging to see the marriages on YLCF– respect for husbands, glory for God. 🙂
Blessings,
Laura
http://only-annegirl.blogspot.com
Beautiful vows – thank you for sharing!
Lord bless you and Scott, dear Chantel, and may your happiness be full and overflowing with blessings, joy and love from the LORD above.
Numbers 6:24,25,26; Isaiah 62:3 xxx
Those vows are so beautiful. I, too, love that imagery, and want to live that out in my marriage.