A week from today, I’ll be married.
In just a handful of days, I will stand before God and family and friends and marry the man I love.
Next Friday evening, I will walk down an aisle in a garden and vow to choose to love him for as long as we both shall live.
It’s still surreal to consider the gravity of the covenant we are making next week. I have no idea what the future holds and no concept of what marriage will feel like. I am, in many ways, a starry-eyed bride who dreams of a beautiful life together. In other ways, I’m old enough and have seen enough of life to know we carry scars. We are two imperfect and selfish people promising our best to love each other, no matter what.
Next week is the culmination of years of prayers coming to fruition – both mine and my fiancé’s. We cannot wait to celebrate the faithfulness and kindness of God. When we were thinking about what music to have at our wedding, I knew immediately the song I wanted to walk down the aisle to: “Goodness of God.”
We chose Psalm 34:3 as our wedding text: “Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness; let us exalt his name together.”
That’s exactly what we want to do together – tell the world how good God is, and how kind He has been to us.
But here’s what I want you to know today: God is not good simply because I’m getting married next week. In Psalm 16, David wrote these words that I’ll cling to and believe in until the day I die: “Every good thing I have comes from You.”
All of it is a gift from Him. Each day, each breath, each flower bursting forth after a long winter.
I look back at my thirty-one years on this planet and see God’s kindness in every season. I couldn’t always see it in the moment, but I see it now. There were days I thought God forgot me, but God was preparing something better than I could have imagined. There were moments I questioned if God cared about the desires of my heart, but He was planning someone for me that I couldn’t have even dreamed of. God’s goodness has been there every step of the way. His goodness has been chasing me down from the moment I was born.
As we’ve been planning our wedding, I can’t help but think of the Wedding Feast we will all be a part of someday. If you don’t see the goodness in your life now, hold fast to this:
There is goodness coming. Goodness is on the way. Goodness is chasing after you!
There will be a day when all crying and mourning and tears will be gone forever, and you and I will dance and eat and celebrate at the Greatest Wedding there could ever be.
It’s all goodness – and it’s all because of Him.
Next week, I will wear my wedding dress and walk down the aisle to stand before the man I love and this song will play behind me:
All my life, You have been faithful
All my life, You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
I will sing of the goodness of God
And as we vow to love and protect and hold and cherish and respect each other until death do us part, I want to also vow to always remember the goodness of God.
Maybe it’s easy for me to say all of this now, a week before I walk down the aisle. But I wonder if we could all look back and gaze at the glimmers of goodness God has been chasing us with — every moment, every breath, every day.
No matter the season, every good thing comes from Him.
Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! I love the song you have chosen for your wedding! Yes, God’s goodness is all around us, even when we sometimes don’t recognize it as such.
Aliza, this is so beautiful. God has been playing this song for me all morning, even in my pain, He’s reminding me of His love. Congratulations and best blessings for your wedding! You’re starting well.
Best wishes! May y’all always see God’s character & plan for redemption in & through your marriage! Blessings, (((0)))
Congratulations and prayers for a beautiful day and the beginning of a beautiful life together.
Aliza,
Congratulations on your wedding. Love the song you have chosen. It is easy for me to forget God’s goodness. Trials come & that consumes us. When that happens I make a thankful journal. Remind myself of ALL the good things God has given me. Reminisce about the many past trials He has brought me through.
Prayed for your marriage. I, too, was once a starry-eyed bride. Know 21 years later we’ve had our ups & downs but God has faithfully kept us together through prayer.
Blessings 🙂
Hi Aliza,
So true! When we’re in a rough patch we tend to forget His goodness throughout our lives. Even in the hard moments, there is always something good to bring us joy.
Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! May your day be wonderfully blessed by our magnificent Creator!
Have fun! Sandy
Aliza congratulations for your wedding. I got these verses for you and your Husband to be. Genesis 2:24 it says “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh” I say Amen to that. As that verse so true. Plus Psalm 118:24 ” The is the day the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it” Your wedding is the day the Lord made. So you can rejoice and be glad in it along with your Family and Friends. I say Amen to that. Yes I am Married 32 years and we do have the odd rows. But we do what God’s say and forgive either and put it behind us before going to bed. So as the next day we don’t keep rowing over it. We hand it to God. Will be praying for you for your big day and your Husband to be. May God richly bless you both as you become one. Love Dawn Ferguson-Little Enniskillen Co.Fermanagh N.Ireland. Xx
What a beautiful blessing you’ve given us with this Aliza ~ thank you!
Blessings on your wedding day as well as your marriage. I’m so very happy for you both. CHEERS!
Congratulations! May the Lord bless and protect your marriage all your days. May God be glorified through your lives and your marriage. What a beautiful testimony! Praise God!
Congratulations on your upcoming Wedding! I am so happy for you both. I know what it is like to wait and it is hard but so worth waiting for what God has for you. I can definitely look back and see the Goodness of God. Thank you for sharing!
This song is one that comes to mind often now, after 39 years of marriage! He called us to be faithful when we first stepped onto the mission field over 30 years ago – but without His perfect faithfulness we would surely not still be standing. To God be the glory!
Aliza,
I’ve been around (in)courage long enough to know parts of your story, and I celebrate with you, that you “have found the one that your soul loves,” Song of Solomon 3:4.
After years as a single in ministry (into my 40s), the Lord in His goodness brought me to the man who was planned for me. We sang “Great is Thy Faithfulness” with our friends & family surrounding us in our wedding, just 2 years ago.
May God bless and protect your marriage!
Sorry, I’m a little behind with the daily inspirational readings in my emails. REJOICING with You, Aliza! I have been with In-courage from the very start too, which begun with Holley Gerth. THANKS for sharing God’s GREATNESS with us. Just as your wedding day is a celebration of your hearts JOY, may your LOVE grow even deeper as you walk together in the good things God has planned for your future. We will be BLESSED with 42 years of marriage in October, after five years of dating, and a few years even before that so it’s been 50 years together. My answer prayer for a Godly husband came very early in my teenage years which I will be “truly grateful” for His PERFECT timing in our life together. Today, after your lovely encouraging words, I just had to pull our marriage ceremony bulletin out which I typed for our service and these were a few of the songs from our wedding in 1983: We’ve Only Just Begin, Theme from “Love Story”, O Perfect Love, O Promise Me, Our wedding Song: There is Love. Our Scripture Verse: I Corinthians 13/Lighting of our wedding candle together. A Solo: The Lord’s Prayer as we knelt in prayer together at the alter (a glimps of our ceremony). P.S. As you begin the JOYFUL journey of sharing one LOVE, may Jesus be your guiding LIGHT & may His presence bring you endless JOY as you TRUST Him! Continue to Let your Light SHINE bright…Matthew 5:16.