A Letter to the Young Bride

Dear Young Bride,

Once upon a time, I was a young bride, too. Now, when I say young, I mean only a couple months into being 19 years old. I had never lived on my own, didn’t have many bills to speak of, and had only fallen in love with one man…the one I was about to marry.

You can see why I get excited when I hear about young people getting married. And I don’t mean 25- or 26-year-olds, because that is just not young. I’m talking about the 18- or 20-year-olds walking down the aisle with their best friend. A quick engagement and a young bride — that makes me smile.

I know this isn’t the normal reaction of the world today. We are so bombarded by expectations that the thought of anyone being truly happy for someone to be married at 19 years old is unfathomable! But not here, not me.

I met my husband when I was 8 years old. I don’t remember us meeting, but he says we did. It was at a sporting goods store, or somewhere else very boring. We met and fell in love that fateful day. Nope. Not at all. I was 8. I think I was wearing a fanny pack and still didn’t have all my grownup teeth.

Fast forward many years later and we did fall in love, hard, and I became a 19-year-old bride walking down an aisle towards my 23-year-old best friend. He was so cute in his tuxedo and starkly gelled hair. We were sweet and awkward and so insanely in love.

I’m here to tell you, it works. Getting married young works. But there’s a huge BUT and an even bigger IF. The reason our marriage was destined to succeed. even though we were almost children, was that we had the blessing of our parents, our friends and family, and most importantly, our Lord and Savior. The only must in marriage, when you’re choosing who you will spend the rest of your life with, is that you are listening to the Lord’s voice.

Of course we had people tell us it wouldn’t work, that we would be divorced within the first year, that we would wake up and wonder what mistake we made. We even had deranged mothers say my groom was better suited for their daughter (heaven forbid, since I was such a horrible girl!). P.S. I was a homeschooled pastor’s daughter…not horrible. But those people were not in our sphere of influence; they were not the ones whom we trusted to speak life into our lives.

We not only had our God, we also had the support of friends and family. We had our church and we were grounded in our faith. Young couples especially need guidance and support. They need to know their parents and their church have their back. The world will say they will fail, that they won’t make it, but we can stand along with them and say if God is for them, then who can be against them? No one.

So young bride, with all your hopes, dreams and Pinterest boards, listen closely. I pray the blessing of Jesus on your life. I pray your marriage is full of love, understanding, and fun. I pray you can put aside any childish selfish ways and sink into the role of helpmate to your husband. I pray you beat the odds and always, always come back to Jesus as the center of your soul. I pray you listen to the important people in your life and hear what they are saying. I pray you keep your innocence close and save it for your husband. I pray he has done the same for you. And most of all, I pray a huge dose of peace, that when the world is doing whatever it takes to be against you, you’ll hold close the Word of The Lord and enjoy one of the greatest gifts God can give — the gift of marriage.

Sincerely,

A fellow young bride (once upon a time!)

Fueled by a little bit of coffee and a whole lotta Jesus, Amy Schuff is a homeschooling mom of three, a wife of over 13 years and a natural light family photographer in Sacramento, CA. In the quest to forever find balance with all the hats she wears, she has focused on an unschooling or “beyond school” approach in teaching her children. You can visit Amy on her blog where she writes about passions dear to her heart, whether it be her kids, homeschooling, photography, or her faith.