For Better or For Worst

Weddings…Bells…..Ceremonies …..Decorations…..Themes…..Rings….Gowns…
… MARRIAGE & Vows …….These thoughts have been running wild in my mind lately.

Okay okay, before anyone starts wondering. No, I’m not getting married. Not me. But a really good friend from high school just got proposed to.

On a beach.

How romantic is that?

I’ve always thought being proposed to on a beach is one of the most romantic things ever. Alright, my mind is wandering already. Let’s just hope my future other half somehow stumbles upon this post one day and takes the hint. Haha.

Anyway, this isn’t about me.

I’ve been helping this friend plan her wedding, and I must say, I really love weddings. There’s something about them that always moves me. Especially when the couple says their vows. Somehow I always end up tearing. It’s supposed to be the bride, not me. But there I am, crying tears of joy.

God knows how I’ll be on my own wedding day. Probably a whole flood. I can’t even imagine.

All this planning has got me thinking deeply about marriage. About the vows we make. About what it truly means.

Marriage, like life, comes with no guarantees. Even a life surrendered to God does not promise a smooth path. It carries unexpected and unpredictable moments.

We grow and change, even after we say “I do.” And change is rarely easy. It doesn’t always bring out the best in us. Sometimes it reveals the parts we struggle with. But even those seasons can shape us for the better, if we allow them to.

So what do vows really mean?

To me, the most beautiful part of a wedding is not the decorations, not the gowns, not the ring. It is the vows.

Because they come from the heart. Or at least, they should.

They are not just words spoken for a ceremony. They are promises. Lifelong ones. A commitment that carries weight. A seal over the marriage itself.

But how often do we truly pause and think about what those words mean?

“For better or for worse.”

Those words acknowledge that change will come. In different forms, at different times. And in saying them, we are choosing something very intentional.

We are saying, “Whatever comes, I will stand by you. I will walk with you. I will support you through the good and the difficult. I will not leave when things get hard.”

There are no guarantees in marriage. Yes, we pray and commit it to God. But we also have a part to play. We have to work at it.

The word that stands out to me is “through.”

You cannot float above challenges. You cannot run away from what you do not like. Life does not work that way. You go through it. And it is in going through that we begin to understand what “better” truly means.

If only more people would understand that entering a relationship is not just about the moment. It is the beginning of a journey. One that leads toward marriage, and then into a lifetime of walking through life together.

If we truly understood the weight of vows, if we truly embraced the responsibility and commitment behind them, I believe we would see so many more marriages thrive.

I pray that we will never take for granted the person we choose to love. The one we decide to spend our lives with.

And when the day comes for us to say our vows, may we mean every word. Not just as part of a ceremony, but as a true reflection of what we are choosing for our lives.

Great loves were almost always great tragedies.
Perhaps it was because love was never truly great
Until the element of sacrifice entered into it.
Mary Roberts Rinehart

Fair or foul, on land or sea,
Come the wind or weather,
Best or worst, whatever they may be,
We shall share together.
Winthrop Mackworth Praed