150 Days of Worship and Preparing

We are getting married in 150 days! Ok actually, as of today, Wednesday, it's 149. Really, I promise, I am not some obsessive bride counting the minutes, for awhile there I had no idea how many days were left. I only happen to know now because of something we decided to do. Starting 150 days from our wedding day we wanted to start reading aloud together a Psalm a day. So yesterday we started at the end of the Psalter and read Psalm 150. Today was Psalm 149. We'll continue (even if we have to read them over the phone if we're apart for a day or weekend) until our wedding day. We wanted to do something different in order to prepare for marriage, NOT just plan a wedding. Coming together at some point each day to take time out to read prayers and praises together is something we have been looking forward to for months (we decided we wanted to do this long before we got engaged at the suggestion of a couple we know). We've been thinking and talking a lot about how to make this time of engagement a very intentional time of preparing for marriage, preparing for the future, not just one "big day." We have been reading Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts which has been wonderful at helping us talk about various topics we might not otherwise think of, and we start our pre-marital counseling with a local therapist on Tuesday. We intentionally decided to find a trained professional counselor, even though money isn't something we have a ton of right now, mostly because we realize that there are things a trained professional will notice, look for, and push us on that a pastor won't be able to. As someone who is almost a pastor, I can honestly say we have absolutely zero qualification to do marriage counseling. Other than listen to a couple and possibly ask a few questions, we aren't trained to know how to do therapy. A professional is. What I have loved is that most of these ideas have come from him, these are definitely not things I am dragging him into! At times, 150 days seems a LONG ways away, I kind of wish we could just go get married and be together, and I know he feels the same when he has to ride his bike home at night! But, we're also both very thankful for this season of preparation, worship, and time to learn more and more about one another and how to lay a foundation that will last.