What I said at our son David's wedding.

Abbie, welcome to our family.

I think we need to give you a little history on David.  I have kept a book of conversations and statements heard around the house and so I am a primary source on this history.
So here are a few nuggets from the world through the eyes of a little boy named David Edward Paulson.

Early on we had a burden to give our children a Christian worldview.   So we were excited when we saw it catching on.

One spring my daffodils had come up and it began to snow.   I was worried that my flowers might freeze and never bloom.  David was four years old and hearing my concern and said,
"Mommy, you don't need to worry too much about flowers.  They're not real persons."

How is this for a theology of hair?  One day when I was getting David ready for nap he stated, "Mommy, even when you have a French braid, God knows how many hairs you have."
David, at four you believed that God knows all things.   May you always have that big of a God -- who knows all things and can do all of his holy will.

One day we were doing a science experiment with celery -- putting it in colored water to see how the celery drinks the water.   I told the children that the celery drinks like we do from a straw but very quietly.   At night as daddy was tucking David in he said, "I'm going to be as quiet as celery drinking water."

As I reviewed my record of conversations with my children I realized that David's interest in bikes goes back a long ways:
Of course we started with a tricycle, but soon David was ready to graduate.  As he anticipated, he said,
"Mommy, I'm so excited about getting a two-wheeler.  Aren't you excited?"
"yes, I am."
(pause)  " I think I'm more excited than you are."

One day David asked me why I didn't wear a bib when I was eating.
I told him that bibs were for people who were still learning to eat.
He thought and then said  "So bibs are kind of like training wheels."

After he had been riding for a while he said one day, "I'm sure glad they made bicycles the way they did -- with a seat so you can rest a bit and with handles for your hands."

David was a significant part of my sanctification.   I started motherhood indecisive and eager to avoid conflict.  But of course the two options with a healthy two-year old are either to grow up and take charge or else be ruled by the child.   This latter option became less and less attractive as time went on and I prayed for God to help me exercise the authority he had given me.  Thank you, David for playing that part in my sancfication.

I am deeply grateful that God has called you to himself.  
As Moses set out to shepherd God's people through the wilderness he said that He did not want to go if God did not go with them.  I know, David, that that is your heart also.  As you bear the burden of providing and protecting and vision casting, remember that you always have Your tender Father in heaven who is your provider and protector and who has not  called you to labor in your own strength.  Lean hard on him.  He will comfort, honor, and satisfy.

Abbie, if God should be pleased to grant you children, I pray that you will have both a love and respect for your calling at home.  Nancy Wilson on her blog Femina says that very few in our day do so.  I confess with sadness that I have not loved and respected my calling at home as I should have. A respect for our calling at home is realizing that the position of mother is a position of considerable influence.  Because this is true, Satan has worked very hard to belittle the position. Secular media lately accused the mother at home of swapping her mind for a mop.  Fight falling prey to this lie.   To love our calling at home is  to find joy in it, to provide a place for rest and happiness.  May God give abundant grace for you to both love and respect your calling at home.

My prayer for you is taken from I Kings 8, Solomon's prayer for the dedication of the temple:
May the Lord, who is like none other, showing steadfast love to his servants, have his eyes open to you day and night and his ears open to your prayers.   When you come into want or sickness because you have sinned -- for there is no one who does not sin -- if you repent with all your mind and heart, and plead with God, then I pray God will hear you and forgive.  And out of the grace that God  extends to you, may you extend grace to each other.   We could not wish you better.