wedding blessing

During the wedding ceremony, after Joe & Gen had been "pronounced" and had kissed, etc., the pastor asked the fathers to come to the platform to give our blessings. Normally, I speak out loud and clear. But this time, I felt so overcome by emotion that I could barely get anything out. My mother, sitting on the first row, said she could not hear what I said. I noticed at the time that I was speaking too softly, but I hoped the sound tech would turn up the volume, because I could not do so myself without "losing it." All of that to say, I will try to recreate here what I said there.

After a few seconds to pull myself together [see the pic], I said to Gen, "We have prayed for you for years." She told me later that she had also prayed for Joseph long before they had met.

I will come back to this asap. [Okay, we're finally home and I can continue on this.]

So then I said something like: "Genevieve Louise--you are a humble fighter for God and for purity. Joseph Aaron--as your faith grows your light grows and also the light of God. Together--you will bring others to the fullness of Christ and His light will shine more fully."

In case you're wondering where I came up with those thoughts, here is the answer: I looked at the meaning of their names. I already knew Joseph Aaron's: Joseph means "increase" and Aaron means "light bearer". I looked up Gen's names: Genevieve means "white" which is often taken to refer to purity but one source also suggested it refers to humility; Louise means "honored warrior." The last part about their mentoring [I didn't use that word but I had that in mind] younger believers just came.