The Light Series Box Set Quotes

“Together, the two of you will create a family. Perhaps there will be biological children or adopted children, perhaps not. Perhaps you will live to celebrate sixty-three years of marriage, as Nonie and Pops did, perhaps not. Perhaps you will always be madly in love, perhaps you will not. Life is uncertain, especially given the current state of the world, but what you are doing today is permanent. The two of you will be bound together through this life and the next, in a way that I do not understand but know to be true. I say all of this to scare you just a little,”—he offered me a hint of a smile—“to make sure you are in fact aware that what you are committing to today is not the stuff of fairy tales, it is not about happily ever after. It is about real life, real struggles, real disagreements, and real love. It will not be easy … but it will be worth it.”
― Jacqueline Brown, The Light Series Box Set: The Complete Light Series

“It is a truth,” Eli said, “a truth that we joke about, but a truth nonetheless. Married women sacrifice. I do not deny that, especially the one married to my brother.” Eli and Josh both laughed. “But there is something about women that allows this sacrifice to come more fully and more easily. Certainly, I speak in generalities, but on the whole, men struggle most in marriages, to learn and understand who they are in relation to their wives and children. Men struggle most with selfishness that does not allow them to see their wives as someone they give to, rather than take from. Jonah, you have always been giving, but you have always been selfish. I say this not to hurt you but to love you. Bria, while you struggled so long to see yourself as worthy, you have been worthy all along. Your heart is pure, so very pure, and I understand clearly why my brother began falling in love with you the instant he saw you on that deserted highway. Sacrifice will be easy for you, but you must allow Jonah to walk beside you. You must allow him to sacrifice and give as well, or you will be withholding from him a key part of his vocation and you will both suffer.”
― Jacqueline Brown, The Light Series Box Set: The Complete Light Series

“You, Bria, are his vocation, just as you, Jonah, are Bria’s vocation. It is through your marriage that you will feel most clearly God’s love and trials. There is no love without sacrifice, and on this day you must each die to yourself and place the other person before you. While this is an important truth for Bria, and all brides, I believe it to be even more true for Jonah, and all grooms. They are called to be like Christ, to offer their bodies for their brides. They are called to sacrifice in a way that an unmarried man like myself will never fully understand.”
― Jacqueline Brown, The Light Series Box Set: The Complete Light Series