Today my husband and I are celebrating our 44th wedding anniversary!
Happy Anniversary to my partner in life who has shared everything there is to share in this life, and in so short a time. How could we have packed "all that living" into just 44 years.
Would we have changed anything in those years....the popular answer for most would be "not one thing", that would be a lie for us. We have learned a lot and would have changed how we did things if we had been born again when we married. We would have lived very differently had we known the Lord in the beginning.
But we were not meant to change anything, we were meant to encounter all God had for us, for our learning. After becoming born again, everything we had to work through made us stronger, we could never have learned what we have if we had done everything perfectly. We would never have come to Christ if life had been easy for us.
We have had our easy times, they didn't do very much for us, it was the trials that taught the most. As we grew in the Lord the trials didn't disappear, we just had a different perspective about them. When we see illness, we see purpose, when we see a financial difficulty we see God's provision. Everything is interpreted now in terms of God's plan!
I am thankful for our marriage and all that it has brought, all the easy, good, happy and all the trials and challenges, we had to have it all, if we were going to grow.
Why should we take all the good and avoid the difficult? What makes us think that we can have life just as we please without hardships?
Job 2:10 "But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips."
So the answer to the question, "has it been a good marriage" would be, yes, it has been a great marriage, not because things were always perfect and happy, but because we have experienced it all and come through it all, loving God more and ourselves less.
The challenge for first marriages is this....don't bail out, don't run when the going gets tough, stick it out, pray more, seek God more and never give up. In the later years it gets better, and you will be so thankful you will be counted with those who celebrate many years of marriage to the one and only person you committed to in the beginning.
Friday, May 15, 2015
The Little Black Dot
I recently read a story about a speaker who was attempting to get a classroom of people to ponder the importance of particular subject. The speaker had a large white piece of paper on a board, in the middle of the white paper the speaker placed a tiny black dot. He asked various people in the audience, to tell him what they saw. Every person he asked said the same thing, they saw the black dot. The teacher admonished the crowd to consider that they had focused on one insignificant black dot and neglected to see all that white paper.
This story reminds me of the way many believers look at the bible, relationships and even situations in life. So often we judge a person by one tiny black dot while missing all the other aspects of that person's life. We dislike one thing about someone, and make that our assessment of them as a human being. Since they are not perfect, as we see perfect, we dismiss any other things that might be beneficial and even wonderful.
Sadly this shows a mentality of desire to dislike someone, more than a desire to understand them as a whole person. No one is only one little black dot, everyone has a bigger picture, but when we harbor jealousy, bitterness and determination to destroy in our hearts, we are not able to see the "white paper", we will only see the black dot, ironically enough we don't think we have a black dot or we would understand that no one is without a dot.
Some people are a black piece of paper with a white dot in the center, everyone knows people like that, all unbelievers are in this state because they have not been born again. However, even non-believers can be very nice people who do good works. My focus here is believers who are determined to judge the character of other believers based on one black dot.
When the focus is the one black dot, then we can see nothing else, leaving no room for loving acceptance in spite of frailties. Love overlooks personality flaws and idiosyncrasies. The only way we can love this way is if we understand that we have our own warts and flaws that others must endure.
Self righteousness is deadly among those who claim to be believers. It causes division and deep hurt, rather than fostering a search for truth together, the mentality is one of isolation from those who are perceived to be imperfect.
Sharing the truth with a believer should be an experience of seeking together to come to commonality in the Word. Often sharing is not loving, but mean and cruel and it is meant to squash and maime. The purpose of many people is to "win" rather than to share. Winning has no place in the heart of a believer, our goal ought to be to help one another come closer to truth ultimately glorifying God.
This story reminds me of the way many believers look at the bible, relationships and even situations in life. So often we judge a person by one tiny black dot while missing all the other aspects of that person's life. We dislike one thing about someone, and make that our assessment of them as a human being. Since they are not perfect, as we see perfect, we dismiss any other things that might be beneficial and even wonderful.
Sadly this shows a mentality of desire to dislike someone, more than a desire to understand them as a whole person. No one is only one little black dot, everyone has a bigger picture, but when we harbor jealousy, bitterness and determination to destroy in our hearts, we are not able to see the "white paper", we will only see the black dot, ironically enough we don't think we have a black dot or we would understand that no one is without a dot.
Some people are a black piece of paper with a white dot in the center, everyone knows people like that, all unbelievers are in this state because they have not been born again. However, even non-believers can be very nice people who do good works. My focus here is believers who are determined to judge the character of other believers based on one black dot.
When the focus is the one black dot, then we can see nothing else, leaving no room for loving acceptance in spite of frailties. Love overlooks personality flaws and idiosyncrasies. The only way we can love this way is if we understand that we have our own warts and flaws that others must endure.
Self righteousness is deadly among those who claim to be believers. It causes division and deep hurt, rather than fostering a search for truth together, the mentality is one of isolation from those who are perceived to be imperfect.
Sharing the truth with a believer should be an experience of seeking together to come to commonality in the Word. Often sharing is not loving, but mean and cruel and it is meant to squash and maime. The purpose of many people is to "win" rather than to share. Winning has no place in the heart of a believer, our goal ought to be to help one another come closer to truth ultimately glorifying God.
Christians Indulging in Paganism
Oh my goodness, I know Christians who are into "essential oils", natural medicine, natural foods and other things that come from paganistic practices.
This is only confirming what God has been telling me for some time. Believers are getting all caught up in this "earth worship", without realizing what they are doing.
This is only confirming what God has been telling me for some time. Believers are getting all caught up in this "earth worship", without realizing what they are doing.
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