In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth says to her mother,“Is marriage
all you ever think about?” To which Mrs. Bennett replies, “Try having 5
daughters and see what else you think about!”
I have become Mrs. Bennett.
I am always making matches for my 16 year old daughter Yanni in my head whenever I see a
young man at church. Two have left in recent weeks, one for the Navy,
and one for a job in Georgia.
Not that Yanni would be interested in them at all. (one is too *old*, and the other is too *disgusting.*)
Still, I remain the hopeless romantic. I saw her talking to a
childhood friend yesterday. He had a certain look in his eye, and I was
sure the look said, “I have loved you all my life. . .”
This emotion is surprising to me. I don’t remember pining for
marriage as a girl. I guess I just took for granted that I would be
married one day. I was snapped up before the craving for a husband set
in; in fact, I was in shock that I was a wife at all for several years.
But I want my daughter to be a wife. And I want my friends’
daughters to be wives. I even look at my 13 year-old son Xay's girl playmates and wonder
which one will be my daughter-in-law someday.
Yanni's 6th and 7th grade basketball coach got married this past
fall. Her assistant basketball coach from this year is getting married
this summer. So is her *twin* sister (born the same day at the same
hospital) Laura’s sister Angela. Are you following me here? Yanni’s
friend Hannah will also be in a big sister’s wedding this summer.
I envy their mothers. Like they did something special to orchestrate
all this. When I talk to the mothers, though, they are giddy about the
wedding, but nonchalant about the love connection. They say something
about church youth group.
I go to the youth room at our church and see matches with the
college aged helpers. That’s because they’re saved, responsible, and
ready to settle down. I can’t look at those young boys too happy to hug
all the girls in the room and see anything for the future. I probably
wouldn’t know Yanni’s husband if I saw him now.
I should stop dreaming and get to work turning her into a marriageable woman.
