Can I forget my father’s house?

If you’re a girl stepped out from home because of the nuptial knot, I hope this post speaks your thoughts too.

Home, was the most comfortable place I could be. I loved to be in the comfort of my house, in the company of my family. Mom, dad and sis – That’s my favorite world.

So you can imagine how much this question would have nagged me.

However, I am so grateful that my husband’s house is only a 10 minute drive from home :)

In the real sense, forgetting your father’s house does not mean that we have to disregard our family or be ungrateful to them – rather it’s about leaving behind the ‘normal’ things of your life and adapting to the ‘NEW NORMAL’.

There’s a pretty interesting Scripture that talks about this.

Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear:

Forget your people and your father’s house;

Then the King will desire your beauty. (Psalm 45:10-11)

The context of this Psalm, is a poem celebrating the king’s marriage to a lovely princess. The psalmist praises the king for his military ability and commitment to justice, and urges the bride to be loyal to the king.

The psalm suggests that the marriage was arranged as part of a political alliance between Israel (or Judah) and a neighboring state, so the bride would therefore be a foreigner.

Quite obviously the psalmist asks the bride to forget her home and her own cultural practices. The psalmist says, “Forget your folks, then the king will be attracted to you.” (You don’t need a scholar to tell that the author of this poem was a male!)

This is hard truth. But it still is the most important principle for a happy marriage (Ok! It’s just 2 months and I’m already talking like I’ve been married for 20 years! Looks like marriage makes everyone philosophers!)

Recently, I had a little tiff with my husband, because I was insensitive to the NEW NORMAL that I had to adapt. Though the argument was extremely trivial, I started feeling homesick; and I missed my old comfortable normal life. Thanks to a man who understands the moods of his crazy wife, he got me back to normalcy.

Rigidly holding on to my old and usual practices caused me to miss my home and get unhappy. Consequently, it had the potential to diminish my attractiveness to my husband.

An important lesson is this – An exercise I need to do everyday day of my marriage life is to overcome this temptation to think about “old normals” and not let unhappy feelings take over. Instead, I need to fill my mind with thoughts of joy as I think about the goodness of my husband and the purpose of his call. This will make me attractive, and Mr.Callie would be drawn to my natural beauty.

Our Christian walk is almost similar. We can look attractive to our God, when we happily leave behind the things that are a part of our OLD life, and look forward to live in His newness.

We often expect a magical execution of this Scripture “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here – 2 Corinthians 5:17”.

My few days as a married woman taught me that this does not happen magically; rather it is something we need to do every day. We need to overcome our personal tendencies to turn back and see our past. We need to face the challenges of the present with an attitude of faith, instead of dwelling about the comforts that exist in our memories.

We're happy about new things, until we have to face a CHALLENGE. The moment we see something difficult or face something that we did not anticipate, we look back. All the Israelite folks wanted to be out of Egypt, they were happy about the new destination, but every time they faced a hurdle, they looked back. This made God mad.

Can you imagine praying, "I don't think You're plan is good enough for me, I'll go back to where I came from." No way! that is nonspiritual, un-scriptural unholy and totally unacceptable.

Whenever we turn to look back and long for the comforts of our past life, we communicate the same thing to God.

But, just like how I have a husband who will not judge me and encourages me as I take my baby steps to adapt to my new wife-life. We have a God who will not judge us, who will always give us a second chance, and give us His grace and strength to live the new life that He has called us to live.

And when the Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient KING is enthralled in your beauty, He will fill you with incomparable joy, that cannot match ANYTHING that you enjoyed in your old life.

There are things I need to leave behind and I've made my list. Have you made yours?

Love,

Callie

Will I look like a princess on my wedding day?

Stop grinning! And yes, that was a question that I had. I’m someone with a minimalist style. I don't mind wearing jeans for a wedding or being labelled as the one with 'poor' taste for a sophisticated party.

However, I don’t know what swept over me that I became a little concerned about bringing my best version out on the wedding day. I wanted the best sari, the most elegant necklace and the prettiest hairdo. I wanted to look like a princess.

But I was Afraid that I’d be sneered at for this ‘sudden change’ and compromising on my stand against ‘materialism’, so I kept my desires, safely to myself – and it was a secret well kept.
Thanks to my thoughtful parents, sister, SILs, MIL and husband-to-be, that I got my not-so-spiritual prayers answered too. I did land up looking like a minimalist princess on my wedding day ;) – good enough to satisfy me!

On the wedding day, after I dressed up, when I looked at myself in the mirror with the veil over my face and an elegant tiara on my head, I could not believe my eyes. Within moments, I was going to be a proud bride ready to walk up the aisle holding my daddy’s loving hand. And ready to walk down the aisle as a handsome man’s beautiful bride.

As the church doors opened, and I stepped inside holding my daddy’s hand tight, all the cameras were on my face, but I didn’t care to pose for them, instead, I was trying to catch a glimpse of the tall young lad waiting for me at the altar. In an instant, he turned his head to see me putting on his signature smile. (Now, he confesses to me that he was trying to fight away the thought of turning his head to see me, but he failed! )

A man of few words, he wouldn’t tell me how he felt when he saw his bride. But his smile told it all.

There will come a day when we will see our Heavenly Bridegroom face-to-face. I wish I could imagine what kind of ceremony it would be. But I am so sure that it will not fall in short of anything less than Grandeur and Majesty.

When my Bridegroom looks at me, Would HE smile? Will HE be a proud about his Beautiful Bride?

Will I look like a Princess, adorned with the finest clothes?

"Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” Revelation 19:7-9

When Jesus comes in the mid air to receive me – with all his Splendor and Majesty, what if he finds me wearing rags and tattered clothes? When He returns, to hold the hands of His Bride, will He be amazed at His Bride’s beauty or will He be disappointed to find a shabby, untidy bride?

Our Bridegroom has already dressed us with the Clothing of Salvation and draped us in a Robe of righteousness. He has already adorned His Bride with the finest of Jewels.

“I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God!
For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.
I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels.” –
Isaiah 61:10

But, are we careful about our garments?

My earthly wedding gave me a whole new perspective of how I need to present myself to Jesus on the day of our Heavenly Wedding. If I have to look like a princess on my Wedding, I must take care of my bridal clothes. I shouldn’t let things to blemish my beautiful dress. I should not be negligent about righteous deeds motivated by love, or I would have no jewelry to wear on the day of my Heavenly Wedding.

Jesus gave up His life, He gave himself as a sacrifice so that He can see us in those Beautiful clothes on the day of our Heavenly Wedding. The garment of salvation and the robe of righteousness are not cheap stuff. Our Bridegroom suffered a painful death to get us our Bridal attire. Salvation is not free because it is cheap, but because we can’t fix a price for it.

What are we doing to guard our saved lives?

I want to be the bride who was READY to be received by her Bridegroom - appealing to His sight and a pleasure to His Heart.

… For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.- Is 61:10

Will you look like a princess on your Wedding Day?
Have you checked your Bridal Clothes?

Callie

From the heart of a Bride to Be - First Note

My earphones weren’t ringing Toby Mac; this time it was a familiar voice – but a voice that grew to be more than just ‘familiar’ now. It was yet another day, when we lost track of time and suddenly he said this,

He: I’m grateful to God that He’s let you be a part of my life… you are exceedingly abundantly more that what I can ever ask or imagine.
Me: And in you, I see a chance to see all my dreams come true…

In my mind I saw my hands placed over my mouth. “Man, what did I just say? Callie!! Is that YOU?? I thought I’ll be spared of all these mushy dialogues”. And having observed my groom-to-be from a distance for a while, I didn’t imagine that he had the ability to say things like this too. It came as quite a shock, when both of us were speaking to each other wearing entirely different personalities. But that’s how the pre-wedding days went by.

Being a bride-to-be was the most out-of-the-world experience of my life. It changed my routine, my work habits, my sleep patterns, and suddenly it looked like everything I felt, thought and said was so noticed and evaluated – sometimes appreciated and sometimes made me look like a fool. You feel like you’re the most important person in a stranger’s world... Man! That is Too COOL!

My days as a bride-to-be let me see a dimension that I least expected from myself. The phone-calls, the gifts, the words of reaffirmation, and the expressions of affection made me feel so valued. So far so loved, and now I felt loved even more.

But deep inside my heart; despite the security, the comfort, the sense of purpose and the depth of love, my heart, as a bride-to-be was always in a state of chaos. I used to get up every morning with a new 'What if?’ the unearthing of new expectations drove in doubts and fear.

As much as I was comfortable about my newfound love, I wondered every day, if I can ever expect a life close to what I was living so far, a life of freedom and acceptance. My heart drowned with questions, and I reached certain points when all my Reasoning failed, but one thing remained strong and that was FAITH!

I could foresee in my eyes of faith the kind of things the Master could do with our partnership as husband and wife. Whenever those giants of fear came by, my Master pushed me to see the PURPOSE in His Mind. The purpose I saw was like a giant gift, wrapped in the most attractive paper, I had no idea about its contents, but I was rest assured that God had a plan. That was enough! That kept us going…and will keep us going too.

Though, I spent most of these days listening to my pastor’s voice ( ;) my husband is a pastor) God was kind enough to let me hear my Master’s Voice too.
Penning down some thoughts!

Hope you like them!

Love,
Mrs. Callie Ariel