Children
Children
* With this marriage, these two families are joined.
(To the kids mainly)
- Each of you is now a resource into which, as family members, you may come to, throughout your life times, for direction, meaning, and love.
- Your Mom and Dad strive to provide not only the basic needs, but a nurturing and loving environment in which each of you find the confidence to reach the highest goals of your hearts, minds, and spirits.
This is part of their vision of what your family is.
Sons and Daughters:
Do you accept the responsibility of being an important part in the building of this family, and to forever contribute your best efforts to maintain the closeness and strength?
If so, say, “We do.”
Selection #2
This marriage joins together not just two individuals, but two families as well. The life that (bide) and (groom) and (name the children) have together will be that much richer for the unique character that each brings.
To celebrate their new family, (bride and groom) would like to present (children) with a symbol of their love.
Selection #3
This wedding brings together not only two individuals, but two families as well. (Name of the children), you are a very important part of this celebration today and you will always be an important and central part of (name of stepparent)’s and you (father’s, mother’s, or parents’) lives. This day is even more joyous for them because you a re here.
Selection #4
Often Marriage is viewed as the union of two individuals. In reality, however, marriage is much broader. As we give thanks to God for the love which brings _______ and _______ together, so, too, we recognize the merging of families taking place and the additional love and responsibility family and friends bring to this relationship.
The Unity of God’s Family
We are, in fact, all members of one family, of God’s family, a relationship emphasized in the Scriptures where it is written in Paul’s letter to James: “And it was a happy day for God when we received our new lives, through the truth of God’s word, and we become, as it were, the first children in God’s new family.”
Recognition of Children
As part of the family nature of God’s creation we recognize ______________ and the significant role he/she/they play(s) in this marriage today celebrated.
The love and hope which God sends to us through the gift of each child finds expression in the Gospel of Mark. “And they were bringing children to him, that Jesus might touch them; and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it he was indignant, and said to them, ‘Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the Kingdom of God’”.
Selection #5
Our children are gifts entrusted to us not as objects to be controlled but as human beings, each unique in their own personality, each separate in their own identity. Consider these words from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran:
“You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For they dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goest not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.”
Prayer For The Marriage and/or Family
Creator God, you have made us in your own image, male and female, that together we may live as members of your one family.
As you surround us with never-ending love, strengthen us that we, too, might reflect your love, becoming ever supportive of one another in times of sorrow, forgiving of one another in times of anger.
We give thanks, O Lord, for the relationship here celebrated. In your presence we are humbled by the recognition that, today, we face a new future, one which love has unfolded and is unfolding before our very eyes. May we ever respect the sanctity of this gift.
As you have filled our cup with joy, may we share the strength our deepening love for one another. Amen.
Blessing for the Children
“For one to love another – that is perhaps the hardest of all our tasks, the ultimate test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation… (Love) consists of this – that (we) protect and touch and greet each other.” Rainer Marie Rilke (adapted)
(Couple may kiss and then embrace children.)
Go forth bound together by the love of God. Go forth with hope and joy and a heart full of dreams, knowing that God is always with you. Amen.
A Force for Families
The family unit is two or more persons who share resources, share responsibility for decisions, share values and goals, and have a commitment to one another over time. The family is that climate that one ‘comes home to’ and it is this network of sharing and commitments that most accurately describes the family unit, regardless of blood, legal ties, adoption or marriage.
Family
I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses
Family quarrels have a total bitterness unmatched by others. Yet it sometimes happens that they also have a kind of tang, a pleasantness beneath the unpleasantness, based on the tacit understanding that this is not for keeps; that any limb you climb out on will still be there later for you to climb back
You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them
The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to
Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future
Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family
* With this marriage, these two families are joined.
(To the kids mainly)
- Each of you is now a resource into which, as family members, you may come to, throughout your life times, for direction, meaning, and love.
- Your Mom and Dad strive to provide not only the basic needs, but a nurturing and loving environment in which each of you find the confidence to reach the highest goals of your hearts, minds, and spirits.
This is part of their vision of what your family is.
Sons and Daughters:
Do you accept the responsibility of being an important part in the building of this family, and to forever contribute your best efforts to maintain the closeness and strength?
If so, say, “We do.”
Selection #2
This marriage joins together not just two individuals, but two families as well. The life that (bide) and (groom) and (name the children) have together will be that much richer for the unique character that each brings.
To celebrate their new family, (bride and groom) would like to present (children) with a symbol of their love.
Selection #3
This wedding brings together not only two individuals, but two families as well. (Name of the children), you are a very important part of this celebration today and you will always be an important and central part of (name of stepparent)’s and you (father’s, mother’s, or parents’) lives. This day is even more joyous for them because you a re here.
Selection #4
Often Marriage is viewed as the union of two individuals. In reality, however, marriage is much broader. As we give thanks to God for the love which brings _______ and _______ together, so, too, we recognize the merging of families taking place and the additional love and responsibility family and friends bring to this relationship.
The Unity of God’s Family
We are, in fact, all members of one family, of God’s family, a relationship emphasized in the Scriptures where it is written in Paul’s letter to James: “And it was a happy day for God when we received our new lives, through the truth of God’s word, and we become, as it were, the first children in God’s new family.”
Recognition of Children
As part of the family nature of God’s creation we recognize ______________ and the significant role he/she/they play(s) in this marriage today celebrated.
The love and hope which God sends to us through the gift of each child finds expression in the Gospel of Mark. “And they were bringing children to him, that Jesus might touch them; and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it he was indignant, and said to them, ‘Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the Kingdom of God’”.
Selection #5
Our children are gifts entrusted to us not as objects to be controlled but as human beings, each unique in their own personality, each separate in their own identity. Consider these words from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran:
“You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For they dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goest not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.”
Prayer For The Marriage and/or Family
Creator God, you have made us in your own image, male and female, that together we may live as members of your one family.
As you surround us with never-ending love, strengthen us that we, too, might reflect your love, becoming ever supportive of one another in times of sorrow, forgiving of one another in times of anger.
We give thanks, O Lord, for the relationship here celebrated. In your presence we are humbled by the recognition that, today, we face a new future, one which love has unfolded and is unfolding before our very eyes. May we ever respect the sanctity of this gift.
As you have filled our cup with joy, may we share the strength our deepening love for one another. Amen.
Blessing for the Children
“For one to love another – that is perhaps the hardest of all our tasks, the ultimate test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation… (Love) consists of this – that (we) protect and touch and greet each other.” Rainer Marie Rilke (adapted)
(Couple may kiss and then embrace children.)
Go forth bound together by the love of God. Go forth with hope and joy and a heart full of dreams, knowing that God is always with you. Amen.
A Force for Families
The family unit is two or more persons who share resources, share responsibility for decisions, share values and goals, and have a commitment to one another over time. The family is that climate that one ‘comes home to’ and it is this network of sharing and commitments that most accurately describes the family unit, regardless of blood, legal ties, adoption or marriage.
Family
I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses
Family quarrels have a total bitterness unmatched by others. Yet it sometimes happens that they also have a kind of tang, a pleasantness beneath the unpleasantness, based on the tacit understanding that this is not for keeps; that any limb you climb out on will still be there later for you to climb back
You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them
The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to
Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future
Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family