TRUE LOVE

Our Wedding Day was blessed by the presence of our former Pastor, Bishop TD Jakes,

and him performing the ceremony...what a wedding gift!

As I drove down the road earlier this week, I began to have thoughts about love and romance. A running video came reminding me of when my husband and I met, our long and detailed conversations, and how intrigued we were with one another. Going on a few dates confirmed our interest in one another that, of course, eventually led to engagement than marriage. We married nine months after we met.

This year we celebrate our ninth year as husband and wife. We’ve had our good times and not so good times. Sometimes circumstances of life put stresses on our marriage that only the crazy glue of our God kept us. Other times our personality differences or idiosyncrasies caused us to see one another as the enemy. The fact that both of us separately had chosen the Lord God as our source for life before our marriage, our marriage is grounded on our individual desires to please Him.

This foundation has empowered us to choose to overlook faults and forgive and to choose to treat one another with His love (many times the choice came after choosing the negative responses!) The fact that I just hit a half a century and, my husband, that plus almost ten brings us both to a deeper searching out of God and a greater attempt to live this life to its fullest.

But, back to the love and romance video. The ability to communicate while dating connected Arthur and me. We became friends. Then one day, at about the same moment, the chemistry connection hit us. Then we wanted to kiss, hold hands and touch each other all the time which caused us to have to put limits on our dating time, alone time, etc. We had agreed to sexual abstinence until marriage and were determined to obey God’s Word regarding sex (even though we both had children from previous relationships and this was the 2nd marriage for both of us). We actually had to move our wedding date up to maintain this promise to ourselves and to God!

Since then we have had some stale marriage moments, but have learned to work hard at keeping our marriage fresh. Attending marriage trainer seminars, conferences to enrich our marriage, date nights, at times talking to someone to help us work through some conflict, and ministering to other couples, allows us to maintain our love and romance. Marriage tends to go through ebbs and flows. The ebbs can cause a break up if we do not recognize our Lord in the midst and remember the covenant that we made before Him.

As we approach Valentine’s Day 2008, I wanted to use this blog to take a moment to honor my husband and to speak well of him. He is a good godly man! Not a perfect man, even though he has a perfect wife (just kidding). He is a peaceful and caring person. He is a lover of God and His Word; a great preacher/teacher and loves to sing the songs of praise spontaneously throughout the day. He is silly and comical (making me laugh and helping me not to be so serious). He works hard at providing for his family and goes out of his way to help others as he is able. We are becoming more and more comfortable with one another. He is my best friend. Our friendship is deepening these days. The hard things and hard times that we have experienced over the years have actually taught us true love for one another which helps us not to take one another for granted, but has helped our marriage to grow in God’s grace! I love you Arthur, now more than ever. You are the man of my dreams!

EndNote: During this same drive, I thought about the Lord and my love relationship with Him, I began to praise Him, telling Him how much I loved Him. Then I began to say how grateful I was that he loved me first. Then I heard these words come from my mouth, “Lord you loved me before I even knew who You were! And you have continued to love me no matter what!” The thought brought tears. Jesus, lover of my soul! His Love makes our human love relationships more enhanced, more secure, more loving. And, more so when we receive those revelations of His love for us individually; He loves us just the way we are. It gives us such an inner security that we can love like He does. What a Mighty God we have! Let’s not just love Him in word but also in how we love our loved ones.