Today was the last day that I own a stewardship, blessing, privilege, and joy: After today, I will no longer bear the sacrificial role of loving authority over and for my daughter – tomorrow she’ll be married. This is what my last discussion was like today with my future son-in-law. Like myself and all who say, “I Do,” he’ll come to learn little by little what this means. The hope for him is the same hope for me – I’m still learning what it means to be a husband. There simply is no fast track to sanctification. It’s long, hard, and steady. No amount of money, education, or years upon this earth can replace a teachable heart. You can have all the former, but without the latter, there is no hope. A know-it-all heart is doomed to failure. God promises if you go low, he’ll lift you up. You exalt yourself, he’ll oppose you and bring you down – for your good.

My prayer is that God would exalt his Son Jesus Christ over this union. When Sinners Say “I Do”, and know the bitterness of their own sin, Christ will become sweeter and sweeter as the years go by. The LORD alone must make this happen for all of us – may he do it for Matt and Anna. Without this supernatural sovereign work from Christ, no marriage has any hope for what it was intended to do – display the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in his Union with sinners.

I love you Anna – you’re almost not mine. But I’ll always love my baby girls.