Dallas, TX Wedding Photographer | Abnormal Marriage + Sneak Peak

Hello blog readers! I'm sorry it has been so long! I feel like school has already taken over my life and it's only the end of the second week.. This is going to be a very packed semester! On that note, I just wanted to leave a thought with you this Friday before your weekend begins and your super cute date nights begin. My pastor is currently going through 1 Peter and we've hit the part that talks about marriage. In essence we are having a series on marriage packed inside a series through 1 Peter; my pastor is nothing, but thorough! ;) The Lord has really been working in me as I reach a season of my life where marriage isn't a far away thought anymore. I very well could be getting married in the next couple of years. I mean how crazy is that?! Well, obviously not that crazy to all of you engaged couples and newly weds.. clearly. But it is a crazy idea, or at least it should be in today's culture.

First of all, marriage was not intended for a basic, humanistic, pleasurable purpose. But because God is so unbelievably gracious and gives us above and beyond His desired purpose in everything in life, including marriage, it is incredibly pleasurable and fulfilling to us as humans. However, the sole purpose of marriage is for God to receive glory through that relationship and for it to symbolize Christ's deep and intimate love for the Church. You remember that typical "marriage passage" in Ephesians that we so often take for granted? Remember the command God gives us through marriage? "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior...Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..." (Ephesians 5:22-25). It doesn't say wives submit to your husband because it gives your husband pleasure and husbands love your wives and give yourself up for her because it gives your wife pleasure--- It says nothing about OUR personal gain, but about GOD's personal gain. We are to married to represent the relationship between Christ and the Church. The Church is to submit to Jesus Christ as he is the ultimate authority. And Christ loves the Church so much that He gave his very life, His beautiful, precious, and important life, for the Church just to show her His love. Our marriages are to depict this vision in every aspect and not be wrapped around what we as humans can take from a marriage. As is our relationship with Christ: God doesn't need us. He can do anything he wants whether we are submissive to him or not. But he still loves us, and we are to love him back by showing our obedience to him whether we get anything out of it or not. 
  
Something also brought to my attention through this series was we live in a society where people go into marriages not expecting it to last. Marriages in our culture are seen as a selfish act and once that selfish desire is not satisfied (which it won't if your only goal is trying to produce selfish desires from your spouse) it's time to move on to find happiness else where. But clearly that is not what God intended. When God gave Adam his wife, Eve, Adam said "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh..." (Genesis 2:23). From the very first marriage God ordained, it was never intended for them to leave each other. Flesh of my Flesh. Think on that phrase for a minute. Leaving your spouse is the equivalent to losing a limb. I don't know about you, but I like all of my limbs in tact! And so does our marriage. You become one with your spouse when you say I do. You make vows and promises to each other before God that you will stay with your spouse through every trial that comes your way. And it is our job to honor those vows as God honors His vow to us when He promises he "will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). God calls us to have an abnormal marriage. One that stands out from today's society. A marriage that lasts through trials and turmoils. And that is the challenge I have been requested of God--- to prepare myself for an abnormal marriage. And that is the challenge I leave with you today!


Now all of this to say, if you are currently in a marriage where you find yourself seeking selfish desires or have gone through a divorce or currently going through one, that DOES NOT MEAN God loves you any less or doesn't love you at all. In fact it's the exact opposite! Not that he loves you more than others but that he wants to help you through difficult times in your life! He wants to hold you when a trial has been thrown your way. He knows you can't handle life on your own and he wants to handle it for you. I know this can be a sensitive subject for many. Just know, there is no judgement here. And there is no hatred from God. Would God send His precious son to die in our place if he didn't have an ever lasting love for us? Probably not. We are ALL equal in God's eyes. No matter what trials or situations we have gone through. 


And with that being said.... Here is that sneak peak I promised you! I know, you were probably thinking can she just stop talking and show me the picture already?! Haha! This is my beautiful friend Lindsay who finally got married a couple of weeks ago! Let me just say, she rocked this shoot!