I have a tendency to speak in hyperbole. Those who know me, know this is true. It has always been a part of my personality, often mixing humor with hyperbole to drive home a point. However, it does not feel like an exaggeration to say that seeing our daughter get married was the happiest day of our lives.

Motherhood is a complicated, multi-faceted vocation. There is pain mingled with joy, loss with gain, frustration with bliss, fatigue with indescribable highs, and at the center of it all are these unique creatures whom God has created with a purpose and a plan for his glory and his good.

In that beautiful moment, when everyone stood, and I looked back to see the man I love, who shows me every day the indefatigable love of God, walking arm and arm with this beautiful creature, who in an instant I could picture as a small curly-haired little girl calling for her daddy, I was overwhelmed with the steadfastness, goodness, and exceeding generosity of God. Then I looked forward, and I locked eyes for one brief moment with my son-in-law, and with glistening eyes, he nodded as if to say, “I can’t believe she gets to be mine.” My husband, her faithful, always-present father, took her hand and gave it to this man with such ease, such pride, and such joy. Then he came, sat next to me, and gripped my hand in such a way that words were not needed. And we took in the moment, marveling at our daughter, standing at the altar of God, ready to accept her vocation. She will have different jobs, different seasons of life, they will live in different houses and even different cities, but the Vocation of Marriage will always be theirs. I find it is always a profound blessing to witness the sacrament of marriage, but it is beyond powerful when it is your child on the altar. As we watched them fully engage in the promise, eyes wide open, using words the world despises like “honor and obey, sickness and health, for better or worse” (regardless of what I feel), I realized that this was truly the answer to all my prayers as her mom—not because she found a man, not because we weren’t financially responsible for her anymore, not because marriage will solve every problem or heal every wound, but because she knows what God is calling her to and she is answering in obedience and joy.

God created her for this, and together they will help each other on their journey toward heaven. They will create a domestic church that mirrors the love, faithfulness, and devotion of Our Lord, and with each “yes” to God, and each “yes” to one another, each selfless choice, they will dispel more of the darkness that surrounds us in this world. There are no words that can truly describe how wonderful it is to see God lead our children. We see the profound faithfulness of God in her life, the miracles that brought us to this day, and we know that God’s faithfulness only multiplies. I know that the grace he offered me as her mother, and the grace he offered her as our child, will only grow, and she will see it multiplied in her vocation as a mother and will see that grace poured out on her children, and on and on it goes.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22).