My Responses to the Top 5 Questions about our Engagement/Wedding/Marriage

John and I are excited to have set a date to be married on December 18, 2010--God willing. We've shared much joy with friends and family about the engagement. It's also been interesting to hear various responses and reactions from everyone---teammates, friends, family, co-workers, etc. Here are the top five questions, and my written reactions.

1. Q: Are you having alcohol at the reception?
A: Nope. Two Reasons: 1) Most importantly, we see alcohol as a potential distraction to the thing we want displayed most clearly: that marriage is about Jesus Christ. Marriage is by God, and the display of God. For the duration of our marriage ('till death do us part)...we hope to keep this central... so at our ceremony and reception, we hope for the same. 2) An exponentially lesser reason: We do like wine and beer, but not that much--it saves us a lot of money to not serve alcohol.

2. Q: Do you have jobs lined up?
A: John graduates this spring. I graduate December 15 (yes, 3 days before the wedding). John hopes to find a teaching job in the cities--that is what we're praying for and working towards. At this moment, we don't have a promise of income. But we do have prayer and planning. We've worked hard in school, athletics, and part-time positions to make ourselves marketable. We do believe it is the husband's role to be the "bread-winner" and that God speaks with much weight about the subject. We are trusting God to provide a sustainable income for both of us, a place to live, and food to eat. We believe his promise that he grants us "ALL THINGS pertaining to life and godliness." But this promise doesn't make us lazy. We are working hard in planning, networking, and applying in order to find these jobs. Please pray with us and if you know of any opportunities, please let us know!

3. Q: Aren't you too young to get married?
A: I don't think so. I used to compare our relationship to other relationships... "well they got married during college, so we can too." Or "Well they are waiting to get married for a few years after college in order to be financially stable." This brought me to realize: other relationships aren't our standard. God's unique call and provision within our own relationship is the criteria.

4. Q: How many attendants do you both have? And who are they?
A: We both have six. That's "a lot" (to some), or "sounds good" (to others), and even "I probably couldn't pick less than ten" (for one). We have included some of our dearest family and friends in our wedding party, and it happens to be 6 each. We are blessed to have these people in our lives and are excited to thank them for their friendship to us. At the moment, we have already asked each attendant to be a part of the wedding...except I think that John has one more yet to ask.

5. Q: How much money are you spending? Who's paying?
A: Trying to pinch pennies while being realistic is hard. Basically, a wedding costs an arm and a leg... so John is giving up his leg, and I'll give up my arm (the right arm, preferably...so I can still wear a ring)! ;o)

Thanks for being curious about our wedding... we hope it will be a good time that puts the beauty of Jesus Christ on display.

Sara Grace

Flyleaf--Beautiful Bride

Unified diversity
Functioning as one body
Every part encouraged by the other
No one independent of another
You're irreplaceable, indispensable
You're incredible
Incredible

(Chorus)
Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride

Strengthen your arms now
Train your fingers for battle
Urgency's here now
Train your fingers for battle
Fighting this violence
With your feet wrapped in peace
Sad tears and silence
Now screams of joy
Victory

(Chorus)
Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride

Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying

We're not gonna fall and forget
How far You went to pick us up
If one part's hurt the whole body's sick
If one part mourns we all mourn with Him
Rejoice, and we'll sing with you
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah