marriage as evangelism

Recently my students, especially the girls, have had weddings on the brain. One of my former colleagues got hitched just a couple of weeks ago and many of the middle schoolers got to attend their teacher's nuptials. So with all of the anticipation prior to the event and reminiscing afterward, we have had lots of fun converstaions about weddings and marriage. (One of my seventh grade girls announced at the lunch table that she wanted a 20 foot train on her wedding dress! To which I wanted to respond, "Dang girl!" but held my cool.)

In the course of these conversations, the girls began to ask about my wedding. When I told them that I wore my grandmother's wedding dress, they were fascinated and asked to see pictures. So a few days later, I brought in the wedding album that my mom made for me this Christmas, and all of the girls poured over it during study hall. It was so sweet to get to share those memories with them. They loved everything from the church to the flowers to seeing how much my sisters and I look alike--it was quite precious. They even said that Barrett looked like Robert Pattinson--which for them is a very high compliment. One of the sweetest parts was when one girl found one of their vocabulary words in the little letter my mom wrote to me at the end of the book: poise.

I am so thankful to teach in a school where I have so many opportunities to teach my students about everything and to share Jesus with them at every turn. It is moments like this one that I am so humbled to have the chance to show these young ladies what it looks like to have "poise" and even what a Christian wedding and marriage look like. Whether it be reading through passage where Jesus talks about marriage and divorce or the kids asking about my husband, we have had some very cool conversations. What I think this reveals more than anything else is that a Christian marriage the way God intended is totally counter to just about everything that the culture tells us marriage is. When I know all my students see in the world is Bridezilla and shows that portray marriage as boring, stupid, and temporary, I am so thankful that they at least got one small glimpse of something else even if it was just in their teacher's scrapbook.