We both said “I Do” when we said our vows, but how are we really doing in continuing to love each other and live out those vows in daily life?

Oklahoma Family Retreat 2014: Key of Promise

<p>We both said “I Do” when we said our vows, but how are we really doing in continuing to love each other and live out those vows in daily life?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Restoration International

Tom Waters

Alane Waters

I Do

We're going to be talking about something that's very important for every marriage and for everyone who will get married If time should last so if you're not married you can still learn You can listen.

Oh that I would have known some of these things a Little earlier, but we we go as we go and grow as we grow So tonight the message as you heard is called I do And that's something that we said very heartily, didn't we?

When we were either saying our vows, some of us said our vows, some had them spoken by the minister, and at the end we said, I do, I will.

How are we doing at doing what we said we would do?

And 1 of the blessings that we're thankful for, and we talk about this quite often, is that we have the opportunity and the privilege of talking about these subjects over and over and over at least 8 times a year at family retreats.

It's not just for you, because I can say that every time we share up here about this message that we are reinforced, re-encouraged, and we go home saying, oh, we gotta do that better this time.

And God said, in Genesis 2, right there at the beginning, he said, it is not good.

I am a much better man with this girl by my side than I ever was by myself.

I've given her permission to remind me at times when I might not just be spontaneously bubbling that forth.

Once she reminded me, she said, it was right in the midst of a discussion that was beginning to escalate.

For those of you children that don't know what that means, I'll just say it like this.

We were starting to get into an argument.

And she said, honey, do you remember how wonderful I am?

So at that moment that thought came to me.

And it so interrupted my chain of thought.

Gave the Holy Spirit an opportunity to get to me, and I took a deep breath and I said, you are wonderful.

And I can't even remember what I was going to say.

And so tonight, we're going to share about the I Do.

And you're going to tell them how this message came about, right, dear?

Well, we've been doing family retreats for this year here at Virginia.

This was where it was birthed, the birth of family camp, right here in this campground 20 years ago.

So for many years, we've been doing this.

And you know what happens when you do these for 20 years?

People grow up, the children grow up and they become adults, young adults and then they get married like this young man back here who brought his wife this year, Jonathan and Sarah Rowe.

Now he's back with his wife and 2 children.

So they start getting married and we start getting invitations to weddings.

That we didn't have scheduled in our yearly schedule.

And I said this is wonderful honey we can retire from the ministry and we'll just start going to weddings.

We got 12 invitations in 1 year Everyone at least 1 of the people in the couple Was from family camp And every single 1 of those marriages were marriages to honor God.

Well, our schedule didn't allow for 12, but we did squeeze in 6.

And for 1 of them, well actually, for 2 of them, they were on the same weekend, the same day, and almost the identical time.

And 1 was in Montana and the other 1 was in Arkansas.

And people were shocked that we were separated.

But we were separated for a very good reason, because we wanted to be there to support these young people.

So then we got an invitation toward the end of that year.

That we were not only invited to a wedding, but this couple wanted us to do the service.

Now, I love weddings, most women do, right?

And I love to help at weddings, But I didn't think participating in the service was anything I wanted to do.

So I thought when they said they wanted us to do it, I thought that us meant him.

So then we clarified it and it did mean us.

I mean, I've never seen a woman do a marriage, right?

I mean, that's not where we belong or whatever.

I Gave him all kind of ideas that he could do and then we called the couple 1 more time And we said is this both your desire and it was both their desire and I said honey I submit I Surrender I will do it cheerfully and so we began to write different things You know because we knew both the young people and we kept getting ideas and getting rid of the ideas and then we thought let's just do something so basic, so fundamental, so simple That hopefully they won't forget it because I believe most of you here in this auditorium tonight who are married are Clueless on what the minister was saying other than just your vows Yeah, what you agreed to and what you agreed to let you went back and listen to the video or the cassette tape or whatever.

Depending upon the generation you were from.

So anyway, we put this together and it's called I Do.

So tonight we're going to talk about 4 very simple areas of the vows that we took.

Now there might be a little variation in the vows that you had at your particular service, but they will be very similar.

And they are to love, honor, comfort, and cherish.

That's what we said I do too That's what we committed to before God and man, those witnesses that day, that's what we committed to.

And we really enjoyed doing this together.

I said, Please, though, I don't want to be standing up front, but you know the pastor's up there a long time Isn't he and he has little other parts?

I said just let me kind of step up when it's my turn and step down when it's when I'm done And that's that worked out good.

Yes, because in this particular case Because of circumstances they had already been married in a civil union so we did our part together and Then I did the actual ceremony for the you know the the church part of it the the spiritual part of it but they had already been pronounced by the state.

So, we're going to talk about how we make this so simple and so practical, because when we did this at this wedding, I can't tell you how many people came to us, 1 couple that have been married 60 years, and they came to us after the service and they said, the man said to us, I have never heard such a simple and profound and powerful wedding service in my life.

He said, we learned from this after 60 years of marriage.

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I Do

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