It seems like this is the busy season for weddings. My daughter Rachel plays the harp for weddings and she is booked solid over the next few months. This weekend my cousin Sara was married in California and a few weeks ago we attended David and Nadia's wedding in Tennessee. I remember back to my wedding many years ago. Andrew and I were young and excited to start life as a new family unit. When we were married we began life together with vows to each other. Our vows were very traditional vows found in most church wedding ceremonies.

On August 6, 2011 Brantley Harris Disharoon and Lindsay Allison Keen became one in marriage. The Redman family was blessed to attend the Disharoon/Keen wedding, in celebration of a new covenant family.

Traditional weddings have utilized a pastor or elder for the wedding ceremony for many years now. However, the jurisdiction to tell people whether they can be married or not doesn't actually rest with the Church. It is also not the jurisdiction of the state or civil government to decide whether a wedding should take place.

A marriage is under the jurisdiction of the family. A wedding is a covenant (COVENANT, n. [L, to come; a coming together; a meeting or agreement of minds.]), or a vow taken between two people. The vow is not to the state or the church, but to the other person. The church and the state recognize the marriage, but do not have the Biblical right to give permission for two people to marry.

The wedding we just attended in Tennessee was a beautiful example of two Christian young people, coming together with the blessing of their families, to covenant together as one.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.  Ephesians 5:31

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate. Mark 10:7-9

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

To read more about a covenant wedding click on here.

University of Texas sociology professor Mark Regnerus has a few odd things to say about marriage: Do not wait so long; all your ducks do not have to be in a row before marrying.

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Last weekend, the Redman family attended a beautiful God honoring wedding ceremony in Tennessee.