Maryn & Logan

My sister Rhonda’s daughter, Maryn, on Friday night became the first niece / cousin / grandchild of our next generation to get married. And I was especially honored to perform the ceremony. Maryn is one of these all-everything girls: super stud basketball player, super smart valedictorian of her senior class, super talented songwriter / singer / musician, super beautiful inside and out, and super committed to our God and his mission. Somehow, she met a guy at Harding who matches her talent for talent and heart for heart. She and Logan seem to just be made for each other. And their wedding outside Oklahoma City on New Year’s Night was a celebration of their love and a worship to the God who’s brought them together.

Needless to say, the whole Stanglin family was there to participate in the wedding, to celebrate Christmas, to ring in the New Year, and to commemorate Cassie’s (my other sister Sharon’s oldest daughter) birthday. Whew! It was a jam-packed three days, punctuated by the experience of a 4.2 magnitude earthquake early Friday morning that shook all of us out of our beds.

But the highlight was the wedding; that’s why we were all there. And of the twenty-or-so weddings I’ve officiated, this was by far the most special for me personally. The most emotional. And, yeah, the most nerve-wracking. There’s a lot of pressure there performing a wedding ceremony for a close family member. My voice maybe cracked three or four times during the half-hour ceremony. Before Maryn even made it down the aisle I realized I could not look at Rhonda sitting on the front pew to my right or at my own daughters sitting five of six rows back to my left. I couldn’t look Maryn in the eyes for the same reasons. Man! It was too much. So I mainly looked at Logan and at people in the crowd I didn’t know. That’s the only thing that got me through.

Logan and Maryn, thank you so much for honoring me by asking me to play such an important role in your wedding. It was a tremendous blessing to me, a great privilege that I’ll cherish always. You two make a beautiful couple. As we’ve discussed several times before, I’m most proud of the fact that you are both committed to Christian ministry and see yourselves as a ministry team brought together by God and ordained by God to bring glory to him.

May the love of God guide your marriage and all your relationships. May the blessings of heaven crown your marriage with increasing joy and peace. And may your hearts and your lives be forever united by the grace of our Lord.

Peace,

Allan