Two summers, two weddings, I must be doing something right. My middle daughter, Lauren, got engaged last weekend to her long time beau, Tommy Carreras.
You may recognize Tommy; he leads worship here on occasion. He just graduated from Bradley University and Lauren will graduate in May from Wheaton. Life will take them to St. Louis in August where Tommy will do recruiting for Bradley and Lauren will get her Masters in Psych and Counseling – and they will be preparing for the next chapter of ministry to broken girls, probably in Latin America.
So the wedding is June 24. Yes, that’s in 5 months, but we’re old pros at this now.
Tommy’s family all goes to Parkview. His family has been friends for years. Rachel and Tommy’s sister Tina (now the choral director at LWN) were great friends when Tommy and Lauren were just in Junior High. As a matter of fact they used to scheme about fixing Tommy and Lauren up.
We couldn’t be more excited, we’ve had Tommy basically in the family for 5 years already. It’s great to make it official.
All to say, if you have kids or you are young, I need to help you understand something today. The decisions you make, even as a teenager, could stick with you for the rest of your life. Good and bad, they will stay with you forever.
There is a thought-provoking scene in Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s tale, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Young Alice comes to a fork in the road and asks the Cheshire Cat which direction she should take.
“‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
“‘I don’t much care where –’ said Alice.
“‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk,’ said the Cat.”
But if you do care where you’re going, you should pay attention to which way you walk! I know that it seems like a lot of pressure on a high school student to think about who they might want to marry. But that’s exactly where Lauren and Tommy were 5 years ago.
Here is a picture I snapped of them 5 years ago laughing at our dumb dog playing in the snow.
I love this shot of them. If I could be transported back in time and tell them that they were going to get married on June 24, 2012, they would have a very hard time trying to process it. Denise and I always told the girls that they needed to only date people that they thought they could marry, but no one really thinks that it’s really going to happen in high school. But they made good choices along the way including the choice to start their relationship with a foundation in God, and the choice to remain in and grow in their relationship with God.
And now, here they are. Ready to walk away from the Lincoln-Way East school district and Parkview; walk down the aisle; and walk out into the world and start their own life and family and ministry together.
This just seems like a good place for a reminder from Solomon.
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright; he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Proverbs 2:1-8
And it starts a lot younger than you think. Make WISE decisions young people. Someday you’ll be old like me and Solomon, and you’ll see.
I’m very proud of you Tommy and Lauren! We couldn’t be happier.
Tim
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