Firsts: First Child I Married

June 6, 2009 Leigh and John Harper

Like I mentioned in my last post, I'm jumping around now. Hang on! This photo is of me officiating at the marriage off a daughter for the first time. The photo was taken June 6, 2009 and as you can tell from the frown on my face as I bless the union of my daughter Leigh and her beau John Harper, I'm not too happy about it. Just kidding! Seriously, I was just trying to keep from losing it - which I thankfully managed to do as I officiated at this wedding.

What an honor it was to be the officiant! I was Leigh and John's pastor at the time, so it was natural, but then again, it was very unnatural because, after all, she was my little girl. Leigh and John are a great couple and have a great marriage and Donna and I couldn't be happier for both of them. It was difficult to maintain my composure during the service though. As a minister I had to learn to keep my emotions in check to avoid disrupting special moments for families like baptisms, weddings and funerals. Most of the time I managed to do so, but there are a few times when my own emotions got the better of me and I lost it. The bad thing about "holding it in" is you can sometimes come across as aloof or uncaring. The reason you appear that way is because the way you keep your composure is to not think about the situation at hand, or what you are saying or doing at the time as the minister. It's pretty scary to think about a person standing up in front of others and speaking without really listening to himself - not taking it to heart - if you know what I mean.

That's the way it was with Leigh and John's wedding. I forced my self to speak the words of the marriage rite itself along with my own comments about their union without really thinking about them because if I had, I would've broken and wept like a baby. The good news is, any tears that day would have been tears of pure joy and celebration about what was happening.

The moral of this story is a simple one: If you're ever at a service of any kind the the person up front seems out of it, or unconcerned, please have pity; it probably means whatever his happening means more to her or him than you can possibly imagine.