Tag: Marriage

I resisted being drawn into the hoopla around THE wedding. I've never been much of a royal-watcher.

Until today.

Today I gave in and watched the lovely pageantry of the day, the ceremony in magnificent Westminster Abbey, with its soaring ceiling and choirboys with angelic voices.

The Bishop with his heavy robes, the chanting, all of it seemed appropriate on this day. Wedding guests sang hymns and spoke prayers, including the Lord's Prayer.

An estimated two billion people were said to be watching this wedding around the world.

Then it hit me. Two billion people, most of them non-Christians, were hanging on every word as the Bishop proclaimed the Word of God and delivered a Christ-centered sermon, as well.

Many who were glued to their telly live in cultures where wives are looked upon as mere property, second-class, easily disposable. In Westernized countries like ours, more and more people now consider matrimony a needless outdated custom, irrelevent in today's society. Too many consider faithfulness and monogamy rather quaint.

No matter where viewers live, each one heard Prince William and Kate Middleton pledge to be wed as husband and wife and to live together according to God's holy estate of matrimony. Each promised to love and comfort, honour and keep each other, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Each vowed to forsake all others and to keep themselves only for each other so long as both shall live.

What will these two people make of their marriage? That's up to them. They know their family history and the challenges they face even better than we. But I choose not to be cynical and to wish them God's blessing. I am glad for their choice to be married in a Christian church and to promise before God and the world to be married–and faithful–for life.

I'm thankful that the Church of England bishop preached a faith-centered, meaningful wedding sermons. Most of all, I am thankful that Christ was proclaimed. For once, the world was listening.

Who knows how God will use this?

Lovingly,

Lenore

Three cheers for this royal couple and may their example catch on

April 29, 2011
My husband and I will celebrate another wedding anniversary this week–and it's a big one. People always ask us the same question. "What's your secret?"

We have none, because every marriage is as individual as the people in it.

You might say we've been married forever, which is pretty much true. We met and fell in love–hard–when we were teenagers. Naive. Smitten. Burning with love. About 130 miles separated us, which, looking back, was a good thing. Without text messages, cell phones or Emails, we had to rely on occasional phone calls and writing letters for the two and one-half years we dated–and waited.

We married young, too young by today's standards, as did many of our friends. Like newlyweds everywhere, money was tight and we worked hard. But we were on top of the world, madly in love, and we were together. Living in the same house. Sleeping in the same bed. After two years we welcomed the first of our four children and graduated into parenthood. That stretched us to the max.

So we blundered through, praying hard, loving our kids and each other.

We understand now what we couldn't back then. Through it all each of us in our own way tried to live as if "we" was more important than "you."

There's a flip side to that equation. "You" are more important than "me."

Tough times? Sure, we had them. Often responsibilities like work and children crowded out time together. But we had promised to love each other and be faithful until death. During the hard times we hung on tight to each other and got through it.

It's not too much of a stretch to say that love is rather like the ocean. The tide comes in, the tide goes out.

Sometimes it feels as if love has gone away and we're at low tide. That's not the time to bail out. If we wait awhile love comes back with as much power as ever, maybe more.

Storms may rage on the top and waves may crash. But way down in the depths all is calm.

Love is like that.

Marriage is like that.

We know only one way to maintain the calm, constant depths of a marriage relationship. That's to base it on faith in Christ. From the beginning my husband and I shared our faith in Jesus and we prayed for our marriage. We knew we had Help in times of stress. Our common beliefs also eliminated many of the usual sources of conflict.

I'm afraid it took us too long to understand the obvious. For years we each talked to God and read from the Bible on our own. Then we discovered the joy of reading Scripture and praying together. Now we start almost every day this way. To hear my husband thank God for me still touches my heart as nothing else can.

So here we are, my husband and I, still madly in love with each other and thankful God brought us together so long ago. We're ready to celebrate–celebrate!–another year of marriage and life. Behold, it is very good and better all the time. Honest.

May you be blessed,

Lenore

What makes love last over the years?

February 1, 2011
Rex Babin, cartoonist for the Sacramento Bee, perfectly captures the emotions felt by many of us during the amazing, God-blessed rescue of the Chilean miners.

I think it's because each of us could mentally step into the shoes of those waiting wives and family members. During the previous 69 days they shed gallons of anxious tears. Now their eyes brimmed with tears of joy and thanksgiving.

You and I have prayed for a loved one to be safe. We know what it's like to gaze into a beloved face we feared we might never see again. We know what it's like to long to hear the sound of someone's voice.

Perhaps some of those couples parted in anger that day. We have, too. We know what it's like to later wish we had said, "I love you, no matter what. I love you and I don't care what happened. I love you."

These joyful reunions remind us not to take each other for granted.

Last August 5th probably at least one or two of those Chilean wives waved from across the room or out the car window as their husbands went off to work. Another ordinary day like every other day. Ho-hum.

Except, of course, it wasn't.

We do that, too, don't we? After all, life is busy and we're in a rush. Family members have places to go and things to do. Kids go off to school. Nothing unusual about that. We'll see each other at the end of day.

Or maybe not.

Sure, mining is riskier than going off to the hardware store. But there's no escaping a shocking truth. We live with the same uncertainty as the miners who went down into the depths of earth.

Being alive is risky. Not one of us knows what any day will bring. None of us knows how many days we'll go on breathing.

So I propose we fix those Chilean reunion images in our minds and replay them often. Let them remind us to treasure our spouses and children and friends–and parents–while they're still with us. To understand that while they're not perfect, neither are we.

And let's be joyful in the moment we're living. One moment at a time is all we get and only God knows the number of our days. He wrote them in his book before we were born (Psalm 139:16.)

So with our perspectives freshly adjusted let's live out what we know. Each person we love who loves us back is a precious gift, not a given.

That's what we communicate when we say those three simple, wonderful words, "I love you."

And don't forget the hugs,

Lenore

Question for you: What story can you share with the rest of us? (Just click on "Comments" at the end and follow directions.)

Who needs to hear you say, “I love you,” today?

October 14, 2010