Father’s letter to daughter after her wedding ceremony

My dearest daughter,

Congratulations that your dream to get married finally came true on 4^th September 2010! Believing that you and C want to live a life together to earn God’s praise, I am using some Bible stories and verses to help you to reflect and look forward.

In Genesis, after God had done each piece of work which He saw as beautiful and meaningful, He said ‘it was good! ’ I know that you had done many pieces of work for the wedding day—making your beautiful wedding dress all by yourself, decorating the cottage site for the ceremony embraced by excellent natural environment, preparing and transporting a lot of things from the city, preparing for a joyful evening banquet, etc. Thank God, possible only with help of a Christian ‘family’, your mum and I see them as ‘jobs very well done!’ May God see the same way!

Your mum and I must give our wholehearted thanks to some people for their special help with passion—xxx donating and rebuilding the cottage site for the ceremony, xxx conducting pre-marital counselling, xxx coaching and mentoring and xxx taking care and developing you. May God also see that their jobs are ‘very well done’ and reward them.

The last words Jesus said as a man was: ‘It’s (job) finished’. No more pain! No more suffering! You and C may hope that after the big job (i.e. the wedding ceremony) is done, all pressure is over, and a peaceful and joyful life journey is lying ahead. After Jesus had said those words, transformation of lives began. To you therefore, this is only a new beginning!

You can also learn from the Exodus story--the Israelites running away from a slave’s life, for a clear destination. Ideally, your marriage decision was driven by a clear calling from God, and not by the desire to end a mundane life, or parents’ disturbance. Right from the start of the Israelites’ journey, God had protected them with miracles; but still they were lost. On your wedding day, God also stopped the wind and rain miraculously. This is deep in my memory. I pray that you will get close to Him so that in your journey ahead, you will not get lost.

For looking forward, I am using Philippians 3:14: “..press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me…” which stresses the importance of forward planning and action—setting clear objectives and WORKING HARD for them. Objectives set reveal a person’s heart for what he or she treasures. If your objectives are only children, a big house, a nice car, more assets, etc., you would do no better than non-Christians! I therefore urge you to set objectives to serve men and glorify God, in your careers, ministry and contribution to the society.

A nice way to end this letter is to bless you and C with Verse John 10: 10. May the love of Jesus give you a new life, and you will live it together abundantly! Two life stories have now merged into one, and you two can now continue to write this beautiful story together!

With lots of love,

Daddy

24 September 2010