This past month in Romania I found myself having a lot of conversations on the playground with the teacher I was working closely with. One day our conversation was very simple but it lead me to really think about this thing that I am doing. Let me give you a little dialogue.
Adela: “Oh, your nails!”
I looked at my freshly painted nails, then looked at hers.
Savannah: “Oh! Wow, they are very similar! Almost the same color.”
Adela: “Yes, very pretty!”
I then looked at her engagement ring and wedding ring. Her wedding ring is on the left ring finger and it is a beautiful gold band. Her engagement ring is on her right ring finger and it is a beautiful solitaire diamond. I look back at my hands. I am wearing my GoRing on my right ring finger.
Savannah: “I wish our rings were similar!”
Adela looks and laughs. We laugh together and she tells me that one day they will be similar in that way too.
After such a simple conversation I really started thinking about what this ring signifies on my hand. The eleven bands show the eleven countries I will travel too. The eleven places the Lord will do big things in my life and the lives of the people I meet. The six smaller bands on the backside of the ring signify the six teammates that I will be living with during this journey. The people that will be my family, my community, and my support system during these eleven months. This ring signifies the commitment I have made to the Lord during this time. The commitment to pursue Him daily. To choose Him when I don’t want too. To lean on Him when I am weak. I began to think, what if I commit myself to the Lord like a wife would commit herself to her husband during these months. How much better would my relationship with the Lord look? Then I thought, why does it have to stop after these eleven months? What if I committed myself to the Lord forever? Just like a husband and wife do at their wedding.
With those thoughts, I sat down and wrote vows. I wrote vows as if I would say them in front of my greatest friends and family. I wrote vows to my Lord and Savior. And I thought I would share them with you.
I vow to devote my life to you.
I vow to love you even when I don’t want to.
I vow to spend time with you, daily, making time for this relationship.
I vow to choose you, everytime, everyday, even when my flesh doesn’t want to.
I vow to love you with a passionate heart, one that burns with a flame that will never go out.
I vow to communicate with you, to be honest with you, and to let you know my most intimate thoughts.
I vow to let you change me, to transform the woman that I am and will become.
I vow to consider you in all I do, to make sacrifices and compromises for you.
I vow to trust you, with my whole life.
I vow to give myself grace when I fall short of these vows and to receive grace when it is given.
I vow to do all these things for as long as I live, until death brings us together for eternity, until I can see you and bow at your feet forever.
Lord, I love you and I vow to be your bride forever and always.
In Psalm 143, verse 8 David says, “Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I life up my soul.”
These next eleven months, and the lifetime to come after this season is over, I want to wake up every morning and commit myself to hearing from the Lord. To remember that steadfast love He has for me. I want to commit myself to Him so that he can guide me daily. These next eleven months look like me committing every day to knowing the Lord the way a wife would know her husband. A wife can recognize her husbands voice without seeing his face. A wife spends time with her husband. A wife chooses to love her husband even when she doesn’t want too. That’s how I want to know the Lord. So, in front of whoever is reading this I commit myself to the Lord. And the ring below signifies that commitment.
This concept may seem a little weird, so if you have questions please feel free to ask them!!!
With love, Sav
