These are the hands of your best friend, smooth, young and beautiful, that you hold in yours on your wedding day, as she pledges her love and commitment to you all the days of her life.

These are the hands that will hold you tight as you struggle through difficult times and embrace you with joy to celebrate your victories. These are the hands that will comfort you when you are sick, or console you when you are grieving. These are the hands that will massage tension from you neck and back in the evenings after you've both had a long hard day, hands that will careess you with love and tenderness when you wake together in the mornings.

These are the hands that will give you support as she encourages you to chase down your dreams. Together as a team, everything you wish for can be realized.

These are the hands that will hold you in joy and excitement and hope, when she tells you that you are to have a child, that together you have created a new life.

They are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, for a lifetime of happiness.

These are the hands of your best friend, strong and vibrant with love, holding yours on your wedding day, as he promises to love and cherish you all the days of his life.

These are the hands that will work along side yours, as together you build your future, as you laugh and cry, as you share your innermost secrets and dreams.

These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes: tears of sorrow and tears of joy. These are the hands that will comfort you in illness, and hold you when fear or grief wrack your mind.

These are the hands you will place with expectant joy against your stomach, until he too, feels his child stir within you, hands that look so large and strong, yet will be so gentle as he holds your baby for the first time.

These are the hands that will tenderly lift your chin and brush your cheek as they raise your face to look into his eyes: eyes that are filled completely with his overwhelming love and desire for you.

These are that hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, for a lifetime of happiness.

God, bless these hands that you see before you this day. May they always be held by one another. Give them the strength to hold on during the storms of stress and the dark of disillusionment. Keep them tender and gentle as they nurture each other in their wondrous love. Help these hands to continue building a relationship founded in Your grace, rich in caring, and devoted in reaching for Your perfection. And may You always hold Sean and Lily in the palm of Your hand, protecting them and guiding them in the way which they should go. Amen.

Back to the wedding!