We Are Making Ourselves Ready

There is a Bible verse that says something like this: The bride hath made herself ready.

Until now, I don't think that I have fully appreciated that verse. There is the preparation for the wedding, of course, but also there is a different kind of getting ready. Ready to leave home, ready to make a lifetime commitment, ready to become vulnerable in a hundred different ways, ready to trust someone who is still untried but true, ready to forgive and be forgiven, ready to step to the place of knowing the only one you can really turn to for help is the Lord. A bride who has prepared herself is wearing a suit of armor under that lovely white dress. She is ready.

The truth be told: I doubt that I was really ready for marriage, but Mr. Sinta was ready enough for both of us. I was tired of being single, and he was the only person I could imagine spending my life with; still is. I had a terrible case of cold feet the week after we were engaged. The idea of marriage terrified me so much that if my (computer factory) boss at that time had not been a knowing-about-these-things Christian woman from my own church, we would not have been married. On our wedding day, I broke down and cried shortly after we entered the building from stress. Even now, I can safely tell you that it was the worst day of my Christian life. I was glad to get married by then, exceedingly glad, but sick of the all of the wedding manipulations and idiocy that was going on behind the scenes. While I was just hanging out with my bridesmaids, Mr. Sinta was on his knees praying with his groomsmen. This was probably the best indicator that we were going to be okay.

It is very different being the mother of the bride. Aimee is so ready, and so beautiful. It will be an awesome day; I just know it. It is the next day that I am not looking forward to when she is not living at my house anymore. For 19 years, we have had her hanging out eating all the gummi worms, and then, POOF! She will be eating someone else's candy. Probably someone else's cooking as well since she is not really a kitchen person. Aimee feels that kitchens are for socializing. The last few years I see her late at night and we talk in the kitchen. She likes to hang out in the kitchen at parties as well. Maybe an interesting transition is about to happen! She may actually cook something there.

As a good homeschool mom, I did actually teach her to cook at one point. Well, my version of teaching anyone to cook goes like this. I teach you to read. I teach you to do dishes. Then, one day I plant you in the kitchen with the cookbook, the tools and the supplies and I leave. I leave because I love you, and I cannot stand to teach people to cook. It is messy, and I stress out at the mess, and the mistakes.

I also taught my kids to clean the house, and to work hard. That does not mean that they are tidy housekeepers, but that they cannot claim ignorance in any of these areas. I do not expect college students to do much around the house. This will probably also be an area of transition.

Tonight is the rehearsal dinner. East is meeting West. We are making ourselves ready.