November is not the time we usually associate with weddings. We usually talk about weddings in June. Even so, conversations about weddings can obviously occur anytime, anywhere.

At a recent Greensboro College football game I was sitting in front of a member of our staff who, in addition to his duties as a key member of our college staff, is also a United Methodist minister with the North Carolina Conference. During the game, a student came up to talk with him about her wedding to another student that would take place in June after she graduates. The two were planning opportunities for the minister to visit with the couple over the next several months.

I must admit, I was intrigued by the planning for marriage counseling I was overhearing in the conversation behind me. They talked about how often they would want to meet and possible times for the meetings, since she is still an undergraduate and he is teaching in the Guilford County public schools. After she left I turned to the minister to get something of a review of the kind of material he would cover with them in the actual marriage counseling sessions. Remember, it is to be a June wedding, but here they are making specific plans in early November.

Interestingly enough, John Wesley had a great deal to say about his plans to marry Grace Murray. The date of his writing was November 13. He was describing the desirability of Grace Murray. His description of Grace Murray is recorded in a book edited by Susan Pellowe, a United Methodist Lay Speaker, entitled A Wesley Family Book of Days. This is what Wesley says about Ms. Murray:

"First as a housekeeper she has every qualification I desire. She is remarkably neat in person, in clothes, in all things. She is nicely frugal, yet not sordid. As a nurse (which my poor shattered, enfeebled carcass now frequently stands in need of) she is careful to the last degree, indefatigably patient and inexpressibly tender…. She understands my constitution better than most physicians.

As a companion she has good sense and some knowledge both of men and books. She is of engaging temper and of a mild, sprightly, cheerful and yet serious nature. As a friend she has been long tried and found faithful. Lastly, as a fellow laborer in the Gospel of Christ (the light wherein my wife is to be chiefly considered) she has in a measure which I never found in any other both grace and gifts and fruit."

It would be interesting to find a diary written by Grace Murray to see how she described John Wesley. It is possible she was not as complimentary of him. For whatever reason the marriage of Grace Murray and John Wesley did not take place. Brother Charles Wesley was largely responsible for keeping them apart. Murray later married John Bennet, a Methodist preacher, and for years she was a tireless worker in the Methodist movement.