the rents...

this weekend my family and i got the amazing privilege of seeing the gospel displayed through our sweet friends Andrew and Heather's wedding. the whole thing was absolutely beautiful. throughout the wedding, God was glorified and the gospel was on display for all of the guest to witness. experiencing their wedding and being at home with my family made me think about my parents. this summer my parents celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. sarah, caitlin and i were not able to celebrate with them because we were in honduras. so... i wanted to share just how beautiful a picture of the gospel my parents are for my siblings and me. 

my parents are wonderful. after twenty-five years of marriage they are more in love now than ever. my dad is such a studier of the word. he treasures it. he studies it so well. he is one of the most amazing pictures of biblical headship for me. he leads my mom and he leads her well. he treats her with such love and such respect. my dad is awesome. he is one of the funniest men you will ever meet. his jokes are corny sometimes but he really is hilarious. he has taught me so much. he is the one who taught me how to study the word and make my faith my own. he taught me everything i know about football. he also taught me how to lose and that winning was the reason you played. if you didn't play to win.. why keep score? he never let me win at anything. :) he is an amazing father... my mother is one of the most humble women i have ever met. she is beautiful inside and out. she is a beautiful picture of submission for me. she serves my dad and she serves him so well. she loves the Lord with her whole heart. my mother is funny because she thinks my dad is so funny. she laughs at all of his jokes, not out of pity, but because she genuinely thinks that they are funny. my mother is the opposite of my father in that she is not competitive at all. unfortunately all of her children took after their father and are extremely competitive. she is quick to let us know when our competitiveness is turning to sin during family game nights... i am convinced that what makes my parents love for each other so amazing is their love for our God. i know that my father loves the Lord above all else, even my mom and his family. and i know the same to be true for my mother. it is because of this love for God that they are able to love each other, my siblings and me and others. they set such a constant example for me and i am so thankful. happy anniversary mom and dad. 

"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. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body." -ephesians 5: 22-30