OBX Wedding Ceremony Readings

To Love :

To love is to come together from the pathways of our past

and then move forward…Hand in hand,

along the uncharted roads of our future,

ready to risk, to dream, and to dare…

And always believe that all things are possible

with faith and love in each other.

The Love Chapter in I Corinthians 13:

Love is patient and kind.

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.

Love does not demand it’s own way.

Love is not irritable,

and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.

It is never glad about injustice

but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful,

and endures through every circumstance…

There are three things that will endure forever,

faith, hope, and love,

and the greatest of these is love.

Friendship and Love:

It is often said that it is love that makes the world go round.

However, without doubt, it is friendship that keeps our spinning existence

on an even keel. True Friendship provides so many of the essentials

for a happy life…

It is the mortar which bonds us together in harmony,

and it is the calm, warm protection we sometimes need when the world outside seems cold and chaotic.

True Friendship nurtures our hopes, supports us in our disappointments,

and encourages us to grow to our best potential.

______________ and _____________ came together as friends.

Today they pledge to each other not only their love,

but also the strength, warmth, and the fun of true friendship.

This day, these friends will marry with love.

And as love brings new meaning to life,

so marriage brings new meaning to love.

Love ; Roy Croft

I love you, not only for what your are, But for what I am when I am with you.

I love you, not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me.

I love you for the part of me that you bring out;

I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart

and passing over all the foolish, weak things that you

can’t help dimly seeing there, and drawing out into the light

all the beautiful belongings that no one else had looked

quite far enough to find.

I love you because you are helping me to make the lumber of my life

not a tavern, but a temple; out of the works of my every day

not a reproach, but a song.

I love you because you have done more than any creed could have done

to make me good, and more than any fate to make me happy.

You have done it….without a touch, without a word,

without a sign, and you have done it by being yourself.

Excerpt from “The Gift from the Sea”: by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

When you love someone, you do not love them all the time,

in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility.

It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand.

We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships.

We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror it’s ebb.

We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration,

on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love,

is in growth, in fluidity, in freedom, in the sense that dancers are free,

barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern.

The only real security is not in owning or possessing,

not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even.

Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what

was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation,

but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now.

Relationships must be like islands, one must accept them for

what they are here and now, within their limits – islands,

surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and

continually visited and abandoned by the tides.

The Art of Marriage: by Wilfred A. Peterson.

The little things are the big things.

It is never being too old to hold hands.

It is remembering to say “I love you” at least once a day.

It is never going to sleep angry.

It is at no time taking the other for granted;

the courtship should not end with the honeymoon,

it should continue through all the years.

It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.

It is standing together facing the world.

It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.

It is doing the things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice,

but in the spirit of joy.

It is speaking words of appreciation

and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.

It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo

or the wife to have wings of an angel.

It is not looking for perfection in each other.

It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.

It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.

It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.

It is finding room for the things of the spirit.

It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.

It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal,

dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.

It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

Blessing for a Marriage: by James Dillet Freeman

May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring,

and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding.

May you always need one another-

not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness.

A mountain needs a valley to be complete;

the valley does not make the mountain less, but more;

and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it.

So let it be with you and you.

May you need one another, but not out of weakness.

May you want one another, but not out of lack.

May you entice one another, but not compel one another.

May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another.

May you succeed in all important ways with one another,

and not fail in the little graces.

May you look for things to praise, often say, “I love you”

and take no notice of small faults.

If you have quarrels that push you apart,

may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back.

May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of

one another’s presence – no more physical than spiritual,

warm and near when you are side by side,

and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities.

May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy.

May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.

Foundations of Marriage: by Regina Hill

Love, trust, and forgiveness are the foundations of marriage.

In marriage, many days will bring happiness, while other days may be sad.

But together, two hearts can overcome everything….In marriage,

all of the moments won’t be exciting or romantic,

and sometimes worries and anxiety will be overwhelming.

But together, two hearts that accept will find comfort together.

Recollections of past joys, pains, and shared feelings will be the glue that holds

everything together during even the worst and most insecure moments.

Reaching out to each other as a friend, and becoming the confidant and

companion that the other one needs,

is the true magic and beauty of any two people together.

It’s inspiring in each other a dream or a feeling,

and having faith in each other and not giving up….

even when all the odds say to quit.

It’s allowing each other to be vulnerable, to be himself or herself,

even when the opinions or thoughts are not in total agreement

or exactly what you would like them to be. It’s getting involved and

showing interest in each other, really listening and being available,

the way any best friend should be.

Exactly three things need to be remembered in a marriage

if it is to be a mutual bond of sharing, caring, and loving throughout life;

love, trust, and forgiveness.

LOVE (Author Unknown)

Love is a friendship that has caught fire.

It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving.

It is loyalty through good and bad.  It settles for less than perfection,

and makes allowances for human weakness.

Love is content with the present.

It hopes for the future and it doesn’t brood over the past.

It’s the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations, problems, compromises,

small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals.

If you have love in your life,

it can make up for a great many things you lack.

If you don’t have it, no matter what else there is,

it is not enough, so search for it, ask God for it, and share it!

Marriage Joins Two People in the Circle of It’s Love by Edmund O’Neill

Marriage is a commitment to life, the best that two people can find

and bring out in each other. It offers opportunities for sharing and growth

that no other relationship can equal. It is a physical and an emotional joining

that is promised for a lifetime.

Within the circle of it’s love, marriage encompasses all of life’s most

important relationships. A wife and a husband are each other’s best friend,

confidant, lover, teacher, listener, and critic.

And there may come times when one partner is heartbroken or ailing,

and the love of the other may resemble the tender caring of a parent for a child.

Marriage deepens and enriches every facet of life.

Happiness is fuller, memories are fresher, commitment is stronger, even

anger is felt more strongly, and passes away more quickly.

Marriage understands and forgives the mistakes life is unable to avoid.

It encourages and nurtures new life, new experiences, and new ways of

expressing a love that is deeper than life.

When two people pledge their love and care for each other in marriage,

they create a spirit unique unto themselves which binds them closer than

any spoken or written words. Marriage is a promise,

a potential made in the hearts of two people

who love each other and takes a lifetime to fulfill.

Traditional Irish Blessing

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

May God be with you and bless you;

May you see your children’s children.

May you be poor in misfortune, Rich in blessings,

May you know nothing by happiness

From this day forward

May the road rise to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home

And may the hand of a friend always be near.

May green be the grass you walk on,

May blue be the skies above you,

May pure be the joys that surround you,

May true be the hearts that love you.

-Kahlil Gibran

“You were born to be together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in your silent memory.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heaven dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bondage of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup, but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread, but eat not of the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone, though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping,
For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together,
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in shadow.”

Ocean Reading; (Author Unknown)

As we stand beside the ocean tide,
may our love always be as constant and unchanging as these
never-ending waves that pour beneath our feet,

flowing endlessly from the depths of the sea;

Your love came softly upon my heart,
just as the foam comes softly upon the sand,

and just as there will never be a morning
without the ocean’s flow,
so there will never be a day without my love for you.

I pledge myself to you this day.
Our love will be as unchanging and dependable as the tide;
as these waters nourish the earth and sustain life,

may my constant devotion nourish and sustain you
until the end of time.

Promise Reading; (Author Unknown)

I promise to give you the best of myself

and to ask of you no more than you can give.

I promise to respect you as your own person

and to realize that your interests, desires and needs

are no less important than my own.

I promise to share with you my time and my attention

and to bring joy, strength and imagination to our relationship.

I promise to keep myself open to you,

to let you see through the window of my world

into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.

I promise to grow along with you,

to be willing to face changes

in order to keep our relationship alive and exciting.

I promise to love you in good times and bad,

with all I have to give and all I feel inside

in the only way I know how, completely and forever.

Commitment reading of the Pueblo Indian, author unknown

Before we met, you and I were halves unjoined except in the wide

rivers of our minds.  We were each other’s distant shore, the

opposite wings of a bird, the other half of a seashell.  We did not

know the other then, did not know our determination to keep alive

the cry of one riverbank to the other.  We were apart, yet connected

in our ignorance of each other, like two apples sharing a common tree.  Remember?

I knew you existed long before you understood my desire to join my

freedom to yours.  Our paths collided long enough for our indecision

to be swallowed up by the greater need of love.  When you came to me,

the sun surged towards the earth and moon escaped from darkness to

bless the union of two spirits, so alike that the creator had designed them

for life’s endless circle.  Beloved partner, keeper of my heart’s odd secrets,

clothed in summer blossoms so the icy hand of winter never touches us.

I thank your patience.  Our joining is like a tree to earth,

a cloud to sky and even more.  We are the reason the world can laugh

on its battlefields and rise from the ashes of its selfishness to hear me say,

in this time, this place, this way – I loved you best of all.

From:  Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Without words, without even understanding,

lovers find each other.

… The moment of finding is always a surprise,

like meeting an old friend never before known.