First, A Bride

Shortly after we’d moved to our current home, Elizabeth found me rearranging my wardrobe in our master closet.  As she stepped into the closet, my daughter’s eyes landed on a large white box that I had stashed on the shelves above the hanging clothes. Intrigued by the sight of the unmarked box (and wondering if it might be a “secret” gift stowed away for later), Lizzy asked, “Mom, what is in that box?”

My eyes darted to the top shelf and then I replied, “Oh, that’s my wedding dress.”

“YOUR WEDDING DRESS?” Lizzy repeated, incredulously. “I didn’t know you used to be a bride!”

While the comment made me giggle initially, the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me.  After all, I AM STILL A BRIDE.  Certainly motherhood has changed me. I may walk hand-in-hand with my toddler more often than I do with my groom in this crazy season of life, but someday those little hands that tug me here and there all day long will be waving goodbye as they steer the car out of the driveway and off to a life beyond these four walls we call home. And when that happens, when the last child has left this nest, I will-God willing- still be a bride.  While being a mom sometimes seems to trump my time and energy, it has not trumped my FIRST LOVE.    I may not have the gleam that I did on my wedding day, but I still adore the man to whom I said “I DO” sixteen years ago.  I may not serve up candlelight dinners for two these days, but the love and laughter we share certainly lights up my life in ways that a romantic dinner never could.  I may have traded in my spotless white gown for spit-up-stained sweats and a machine-wash only wardrobe, but I still feel beautiful when my husband smiles at me in that special way.  I may have temprarily lost my lacy lingerie beneath a stack of nursing bras, but I’ve never lost sight of what a gift it is to have a husband who loves me for who I am and dares me to follow my dreams.

My wedding dress may be wrapped carefully in a box at the top of my closet, but the love I’ve shared with the man God gave me at the tender age of seventeen can never be boxed or shelved.  It continues to grow with a depth and breadth that I never dreamed possible on the day I wore that sparkling gown of white. 
Without a doubt, I AM STILL A BRIDE!  And the love story God is writing for me and my chosen groom is far from finished! I wrote this poem for Rob many Valentine’s days ago with a prayer that this BRIDE will be one piece of a great legacy of love.