Marriage Speech
(Sunday, April 22, 2012)
This is what I sound like when I am speaking in English. On Sunday, April 22, 2012 I attended two banquets held at a downtown luxury hotel where I perform Christian weddings. The guests were all couples that I have married over the last two years.
The hotel invited them back partly to honor them, and partly as a promotion device.
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Good afternoon, and welcome back to the X Hotel, Tokyo. I am happy and very honored to see you all again here at X Hotel.
I am Mr. A, and I would like to give you a small‘Marriage Speech’ before you start your delicious
meal.
For Christians, marriage is a symbol of the relationship between Christ and his Church, meaning his followers. It is a relationship instituted by God in the Bible
1) for the preservation of society;
2) for the proper rearing of children; and,
3) and for personal fulfillment, so that people would live their lives together, not alone and isolated.
Relationship is the key to the universe, and marriage and the propagation of children are the most enduring way that human beings forge relationships.
Many people say, “Oh, you’re married. Are you happy now?” But marriage isn’t always happy. I think that if you were not a happy person before you married, you aren’t more likely to become any happier after marriage. Marriage isn’t easy. It’s a work in progress and constantly evolving. It might even be called an endurance race to the End. Marriage requires not just a lot of love but a lot of patience, cooperation and compromise between two people. You don’t always get your own way and you can’t always do what you want because now that you’re married your lives are not your own. You belong to each other. Marriage is a long-term partnership.
With your marriage vows you made promises to each other in front of your friends and family to bind yourselves together as husband and wife. And to be bound in this marriage relationship is a wonderful thing.
Some people are surprised by the idea that you do not always like the person that you love. It might sound strange, but Love does not mean a whole lot of liking. “Love” and “like” are two different things. Love is bigger than like. It encompasses more. Love can contain both like and dislike. Or, like an umbrella, Love covers both like and dislike, good and bad. Just as a parent always loves their children while disliking the naughty things they might do, you still love your husband or wife even when they annoy you, and even when you argue.
What does it mean to “love” your husband or wife? Of course you probably like them better than any other person for several reasons, but love is more than just liking. Some people say that your partner is the person that makes you feel complete, or whole, the one who gives you a feeling that no other does. I think that loving someone means you have found the one person that you are willing to change yourself into a better person for.
Living together with the same person day after day after day after day you discover that love is what motivates you to build something together.
1) First, you create a home together;
2) Then, maybe you make a business together; and,
3) Finally, you usually make children together.
Your family is a sign to the world, “We’re in love and we want to make something.” Love is the ongoing act of creating something. To have love in your life is to have hope - hope for the future while taking pleasure in the present. Whatever happens in life there is always hope.
I wish you all the best and pray for your long happy life together. Now, please enjoy your meal!
Thank you very much!