Fab Wedding Inspiration for A Christian Wedding

Today’s post is a bit personal, and I’m not sure if it will flow very well, but here goes.

Before I got married or even knew who I was going to get married to, I had a desire deep down that whenever it was that I would become a wife, that I would want to be a housewife, stay-at-home wife, stay-at-home mum, WAHM, SAHM, whatever you wish to call it. I don’t think I shared this desire with many of my girlfriends, but I do remember sharing with my mum.

My mum is a big role model for me – she has taught me so many things, and one of the many things that sticks to my mind is that she was physically there for us as children. She would take us to school, pick us up, be there to ensure we did our homework, read the Word of God to us, cook yummy meals for us, and we had packed lunches for school trips that other kids would die for (seriously, did you ever have home cooked chicken in pitta bread, with salad, mum’s special spicy tomato relish, completed with a lemon slice to squeeze on when ready to eat, for packed lunch?!) . She did go to work, but she made the sacrifice to work at nights whilst we were sleeping. And when she did have a day job, it was one where she could take us along (it was in a small business run from a house – she even had my sister’s playpen set up in her bosses living room whilst she got on with answering telephone calls and doing business! I also remember writing on my mum’s bosses living room wallpaper! Thankfully my mum’s boss was my uncle, who incidentally acted as my dad at our wedding reception).

Anyway, mum counselled me and told me that my desire was a good one but a hard one, and in this day and age, it could be financially challenging. Her final advise for me to pray about it.

So I got married, we had our first daughter, and during maternity leave, I furthered my music education, did things like baking etc. My husband gave me inspiration for a possible business, but I didn’t really get the whole self employed thing moving. I returned to my day job and was spoilt blessed because my mum was able to take care of our daughter whilst we went to work. Despite this, I still felt I was missing out on our baby’s development, so I decided to go part-time so that I could spend more time with her. That’s when I started getting a little more serious about trying to set up something on the side, and even my boss at work identified that my priorities had changed and asked if I had any projects up my sleeve to enable me to spend more time at home.

I figured my next real opportunity to start something properly would be on my next maternity leave, so I was over the moon when we became pregnant with our son (no, we didn’t just have him so I could go on mat leave to start a business!). I was determined to get a business started and tapped into loads of resources to help me do this. It was a year of learning, expanding my skills, trying to find my focus, and I didn’t actually launch anything until a few months before I was due to return to work. I have to admit that I was disappointed that I hadn’t progressed to a point where I could actually quit my job and not return to work, but the Lord knows what he’s doing.

My husband lost his job last year April and we thought it wouldn’t take him long to find employment again, but still to this day, we are still trusting God to find work for him. It’s been a blessing because it means he has had a chance to be with the children, and if I didn’t have my job, I honestly don’t know how we would have coped.

I am still trusting that the Lord will grant the desires of my heart (this whole issue was the driver behind the encouragement verse that I posted the other week – it was more of an encouragement to myself) and that I will have the opportunity to be at home with my children all the time, but it made me think/realise the importance of prayerfully having a plan for how you will achieve your dream/calling as a woman and wife.

{I just want to clarify, I do NOT think that every wife needs to be a housewife/stay-at-home mum – each woman has a different calling on her life, and you need to find out what yours is.}

Some women I know had the same desire that I had before they got married and decided to do something about it before they walked down the aisle – i.e. started a business (let’s face it, not all  of us are going to be blessed with a super rich husband such that we never have to work again – lol), some waited until they were married, but got something established before they had children (I guess this is another factor that I could have added to my guest post over at From Now Till I Do). Like I said, I think the key is to dream, pray, plan and take ACTION.

Lindsay over at The Sweet Christian Bride wrote an excellent post on praying about your goals as a couple before you get married (please go to read it now and then hop back here ) It makes total sense, but I have to say G and I didn’t do this with intention before we got married – I mean we talked about our future, what we wanted to do, but didn’t write down our goals and purposes with the mind to take intentional actions to achieve those goals and fulfill those purposes. God is faithful though, and what do they say? Better late than never.

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God bless

xXx

P.s Your prayers are muchly appreciated!