Last weekend I had the privilege of taking Jonathan and Juanita Trexel through a recommitment of their marriage vows as they celebrated their 27th anniversary. I closed the ceremony with what is known as the traditional Puritan Marriage Prayer which seemed to touch many who were in attendance. Here is the prayer as I stated it for Jonathan and Juanita, for you to be blessed by as well:Oh, God of love, you have established the marriage of Jonathan and Juanita for the sake of your glory and the gospel. Yours was the plan and only with You can they work it out with joy. You have said it is not good for man to be alone, I will make a helpmate for him. Their joys are doubled since the happiness of one is the happiness of the other. Their burdens halved as they have shared them.
Dear Father, we would ask that you would bless Jonathan. Bless him as a provider of nourishment and raiment and sustain him in all the expectations and pressures of his battle for bread. May his strength be Juanita’s protection, his character be her boast and her pride and may he continue to live that she finds in him the haven for which the heart of a woman truly longs.
And dear Heavenly Father, we would ask that you bless Juanita. Continue to give her tenderness that will make her great, a deep sense of understanding and a great faith in You. Give her inner beauty of soul that never fades. That eternal youth that is found in holding fast the things that never age.
Give both of them a continued great spiritual purpose in life as they seek Your kingdom and Your righteousness. Loving You best they shall love each other the more and faithful unto each other they will be. May they not expect that perfection of each other that belongs to You alone. May they minimize each other’s weaknesses, be swift to praise and magnify each other’s points of comeliness and strength and see each other through a lover’s kind and patient eyes.
Now make such assignments to them on the scroll of Your will as You bless them and develop their character as they walk together. Give them a little something to forgive every day that they may grow in the grace of longsuffering. Give them enough tears to keep them tender, enough hurts to keep them human, enough failures to keep their hands clenched tightly in Yours and enough success to make them sure they walk with You. May they never take each other’s love for granted but always experience that breathless wonder that exclaims “out of this world, You have chosen me.”
When life is done and the sun is setting, may they be found then as now, hand in hand thanking You for each other. May they serve You happily, faithfully together until at last one shall lay the other into the arms of Jesus.
This we ask through Jesus Christ, the great Lover of our souls. Amen
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