Lessons Learned At A Wedding

Lessons Learned at a Wedding
 
Life is full of lessons.  Everyday situations are ripe with opportunity to learn important lessons and truths.  Here are some lessons I learned at a wedding this past weekend.
 
Lesson #1-Get an early start/Be on Time!
Howard and I went to the wedding of his first cousin's son on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. The wedding and reception were held at the Detroit Yacht Club on Belle Isle. We arrived late, as did several other guests. We got there just as the bride was getting ready to make her grand entrance. What a radiant bride, what a beautiful wedding: Simple yet elegant! If we had left home just 15 minutes earlier, we would have seen the whole wedding. (It wasn't on CPT!!!)
 
Lesson #2-Show Up! Celebrate Life!
In all honesty, I didn't really feel like going (I was looking forward to a lazy day at home with no agenda, nothing to do but clean house), but we had RSVP'd, and I figured dinner at a Yacht Club must be expensive--and I didn't want them to spend the money for the meals and we didn't have the courtesy to keep our word and show up! Plus, I remembered the parents of the groom had attended our daughter's wedding the year before. Also, this was our family's first occasion of being together since the deaths of Howard's father, Oddie and mother, Lola last year. It was wonderful being able to get together for a happy occasion, like a wedding. I'm so glad we went. It was great seeing everybody from around the country. Sometimes you have to Press your way on....even when you don't feel like it!
 
Lesson #3-Always Remember to acknowledge and thank God for how far He's brought you, and don't forget the struggles of those who've come before.
Well, I have never been in a Yacht Club before. The place reeked of "old money!" There
was wood trim everywhere, antique furniture, large windows, marble, statues, a water fountain, and old photographs adorned the walls. The view of the water was spectacular! I couldn't help but wonder if in years past we African-Americans were even allowed in there, except to serve and clean up.
 
Lesson #3-There are no coincidences. We are all connected somehow!
I saw a woman there from Battle Creek who used to shop in the retail store Howard and I operated in the 90's. I wondered what was our connection. I found out that her son and our cousin, the groom, were college roommates. Her son was one of two best men in the wedding party! What a small world.
 
Lesson #4 Things Are Not As They Seem
At the reception, Howard and I sat at our assigned table with a cousin from out-of-state and another couple. The wife seemed either aloof or painfully shy to me. The father of the groom made the introductions and we learned that the other couple was the minister who had performed the wedding, and the family's pastor. Howard's brother, Kelvin, came to our table. As he was leaving, Kelvin said, "Now you can tell them my testimony." You see, last year right after the death of their father, Kelvin had a series of strokes and two brain surgeries. He remembers overhearing the doctors saying that he wouldn't make it! When Kelvin told them his testimony, the minister told us that his wife had had two brain surgeries. I think Kelvin's testimony inspired them that there was hope for the wife! I learned not to judge a book by its cover and that things are not always as they seem at first glance. The minister's wife wasn't stuck-up or aloof or introverted: the woman had undergone two brain surgeries. She and my brother-in-law, Kelvin, were walking miracles and living testimonies.
 
Look around you. There are lessons to be learned in every situation, every circumstance and in every storm of life.
-Robyn