Stephen’s speech

Obviously I was present at my own wedding, and I have some things to say about it. But for now here is the Best Man’s speech.

Before I begin, I would like to thank John-Paul for asking me to come here in front of so many people to do some public speaking. So: thanks, John-Paul.

As I was thinking about what to do today, I figured that I should just keep to the main purposes of the Best Man Speech. I came up with three.

The first, I suppose, is to provide some amusement or entertainment. It’s traditional, especially if the speaker is a brother, to bring up a funny story from the groom’s childhood or teenage years. Unfortunately, I am ten years younger than John-Paul. I either wasn’t around yet or I just don’t remember much about those times. I never saw him, e.g., when he would pick up cigarette butts from the street and try to smoke them. Nor do I remember when he would pray for ten minutes at a time to put off getting his shots. I never saw him when he was in grade school, where he was known to put on short plays he had spent hours adapting from Shakespeare. By the way, those plays were pretty good. I’ve read them.

My apologies for not being able to tell you more about when John-Paul was younger and, maybe, a little wilder? But no matter. I remember plenty about when he was older.

That brings me to the second purpose: I’m supposed to highlight some of the groom’s best qualities. Here is a sampling. John-Paul is an authentic person: he will always speak candidly to you. John-Paul is very intelligent and has an informed opinion on just about everything, even different types of font, which he is surprisingly eager to talk about. John-Paul is a person of great integrity: he won’t put up with any nonsense. John-Paul is very funny: in most of our conversations we have at least one good laugh. John-Paul is a voracious reader, and will be glad to give you some book recommendations, if you ask. John-Paul will always try to see the good in other people.

Finally, I am supposed to provide some reassurance about the matter at hand: the wedding. I remember one of the first times I saw John-Paul and Karin interacting together. It was during a pickup soccer game. If you know our family, you know that soccer is of great value to us. So when Karin started coming to our weekend pickup games just to watch him play, I really should have been clued in that something out of the ordinary was going on. Fortunately, John-Paul must have noticed because he started to brag about his leg muscles even more than usual. If Karin is willing to put up with that, then I know she must be someone special.

In all seriousness, we are glad the two of them noticed each other when they did. Their support and encouragement for one another has been evident for some time now, and we are eager to officially welcome Karin to the family. We are so happy for them, and we trust that God will guide their lives together.