"I Do"…What?: An Engaging Look at the Wedding Vows, with a Discussion Guide for Pre-Marriage Counsel, Marriage Enrichment, or Small Group Studies.

By Dennis R. Fulton

Dennis Fulton has served in local church ministries for sixty years. He served the Chapel Rock Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, when the megachurch movement was in its infancy in Christian churches and Churches of Christ. After a two-year hiatus for renewal and restoration, Dennis was returned to local ministries. During all of his ministry, however, his interest in world missions found him preaching or teaching in twelve different nations, with an extended stay "down under." While in Australia, he completed the manuscript for this book. Over his lengthy ministry, there have been over five hundred couples who have stood before him to declare "I do." Among those have been his five children and, to this date, four of his grandchildren. It has been at the insistence or encouragement of them that this book has become a reality. They think it is important for others to know what it means when they say: FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE. Surely marriage will bring those things that are better. But just as surely, there will be those things that are worse. How much worse? Is it ever worse enough to throw in the towel? FOR RICHER, FOR POORER. Two family backgrounds are coming together in a marriage. One family grabs that dollar bill and squeezes George Washington to death on the way to the bank. The other may run to Dairy Queen and lick the life out of old George. What should be done in a marriage to merge these money matters? SICKNESS AND HEALTH. Some couples have found the stress of preparation for a wedding, the ceremony, the reception, and even the honeymoon leaving them exhausted and near sickness. There are, however, those big words like cancer, Alzheimers, and chronic diabetes that could be future tests of this part of the vow. What if? A good understanding of what is contained in that "I do" can help many couples toward the goal of a "they all lived happily ever after" marriage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449783181

Dennis R. Fulton

Dennis Fulton has served in local church ministries for 60 years. He served the Chapel Rock Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana when the mega church movement was in its infancy in Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. After a two year haitus for renewal and restoration Dennis was returned to local ministries. During all of his ministry, however, his interest in world missions found him preaching or teaching in 12 different nations, with an extended stay "down under". While in Australia, he completed the manuscript for this book. Over his lengthy ministry there have been over 500 couples who have stood before him to declare "I do".

Book preview

I DO...

WHAT?

AN ENGAGING LOOK AT THE WEDDING VOWS, WITH A DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR PRE-MARRIAGE COUNSEL, MARRIAGE ENRICHMENT, OR SMALL GROUP STUDIES.

DENNIS R. FULTON

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Copyright © 2013 DENNIS R. FULTON.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Wedding ceremony is from the traditional Anglo-Saxon wedding ceremony as it appears in the Book of Common Prayer, a ceremony in use for centuries.

Words for How to handle a woman are from the musical Camelot.

Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner.

Art insets are by subscription from Graphics Factory, www.graphicsfactoryinc.com

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8317-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8318-1 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8319-8 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013901579

WestBow Press rev. date: 1/30/2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Traditional Wedding Ceremony

I. Holy Matrimony

Declaration Of Intent This Woman This Man

II. This Woman? This Man?

Declaration Of Intent This Woman, This Man

III. This Woman? This Man?

The Marriagevows For Better For Worse

IV. For Better For Worse

The Marriagevows For Richer For Poorer

V. For Richer For Poorer

The Marriage Vows In Sickness And In Health

IV. In Sickness And In Health

The Marriage Vows I Promise You My Love

VII. I Promise You My Love

Presentation Of The Rings

VIII. Presentation Of The Rings

Proclamation Of Marriage

X. Proclamation Of Marriage

Biblical Blueprint Formarriage

XI. Blueprint For Marriage

I. Holy Matrimony

This Woman This Man

Better Or Worse

Richer Or Poorer?

Sickness Or Health?

I Promise You My Love

Presentation Of The Rings

Proclamation Of Marriage

Blueprint For Marriage

"At the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and said, ‘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.

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Therefore what God has joined together let man not separate.

—Matthew 19:4-6 NIV

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost and above all, to my wife and typist, Wanda. My typing consists of the Columbus Method of discover and land, or the Biblical method of seek and you shall find. Wanda has been my typist since the days of college term papers. Without her skill, determination and insistence this book would never exist.

To Wanda, who has been patient with my attempts to perfect the I do and who has extended God’s grace to me when I have failed.

To Wanda, the mother of our five children, grandmother to our fourteen, and great grandmother of eight and counting. She has partnered with me in sharing the contents of this book with our progeny.

To Rachel and Ruth, our daughters, with whom this material was shared in marriage counsel and who have encouraged their Dad to be an author as well as a preacher and teacher.

To Lauren, our granddaughter and her husband, Michael Martin, who are my most recent of hundreds of weddings. The miles between us interfered with pre-marital counsel, so they studied the manuscript of I Do What and recommended it being shared with others.

To Wendy Fitzgerald, Children’s Minister par excellence ,from Tarpon Springs, Florida who read one of my first drafts. She suggested study notes would be helpful for pre-marital counsel and to be used in couples Small Group Studies for marriage enrichment.

I said first and above all, so finally to Wanda Fulton who has been wife, mother, grand and great grandmother and an example of the I Do’s for over 60 years! What a woman! Thanks!

INTRODUCTION

I Do…What? What kind of title is that? And is there any possible need for such a book to be written, much less ever read?? To these two questions my answer would be, I certainly think so. And this think so comes after a half-century of standing before couple after couple who were expected to answer I do to that question I was going to ask. Many times the couple standing before me was so exhausted they