February 1, 2021 – Click here to listen
In December my wife and I celebrated our 50th year of marriage. Not long ago a reader wrote and asked how in the world we accomplished such a feat in this day and time. She said in that amount of time we surely have had reasons enough to split and go our separate ways.
Huh? Oh no, our marriage was perfect every minute of every hour for fifty years.
NOT!
Successful marriages survive when a man and a woman decide to bend like swaying reeds and not stand firm like rigid pine trees that snap when the storms come and trust me storms will come.
The Bible instructs us not to let the sun go down on our anger. I cannot say that we always abided by that. After all doesn’t a person need some time to sulk? Not according to God.
Many marriages, families, and friendships are destroyed because of pride. One thing I have learned is that marriages and friendships are a give and take process. If you are not prepared to yield on occasion, even when you are in the right, it is not likely that the other party will yield when you do something wrong.
I think all of us must first come to the realization that neither party is perfect, yes that includes us.
I have talked with many a young person who just cannot seem to find that proverbial woman/man of their dreams that is just perfect for them. Hmmm . . . Do they ever consider that it is because such a person does not exist. We all have imperfections. I have met many who have tried marriage multiple times always with the same result, divorce. They are looking for something that does not exist aside from God, perfection.
My wife says and does things on occasion that I do not like; likewise I definitely do and say things on occasion that she does not like. We succeed because we bite our lips and overlook these imperfections and focus on the things we like about each other.
Some cannot seem to do it but it is best to just sigh and swallow some pride and quit rerunning that awful thing he or she said or did and just forgive them and move on. Words don’t hurt near as bad as spending life alone and miserable.
At the end of the day God wants us to be happy. It starts with optimism and smiling. Look at the bright things in life. Be thankful, not resentful. Don’t sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff.
Thank God for this wonderful day and genuinely look forward to making the most of it! If you have an important “other” or good friend in your life, be filled with joy over it. Be happy that God has seen fit to introduce you to them and that you have someone with whom to share things and that you are not alone.
If you anger someone today, don’t let the sun go down without making it right with them, even if it means . . . uh . . . er . . . gulp . . . hmmm . . . apologizing . . . to them. (There I said it.)
1 Corinthians 13:4
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”