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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

faithfulness in marriage

Dan Moreheart died a few weeks ago. He really suffered physically throughout the later part of his life.

The last time I talked with Dan he said, "I always thought that I would be with Patty in our eighties, walking hand in hand down the street."

Dan's now with Jesus.

But what he said struck me.

I look forward to walking "hand in hand" with Debbie when we are old. I am committed to being faithful to my wife.

Author and business leader Fred Smith writes: One of my treasured memories comes from a doughnut shop in Grand Saline, Texas. There was a young farm couple sitting at the table next to mine. He was wearing overalls and she a gingham dress. After finishing their doughnuts, he got up to pay the bill, and I noticed she didn't get up to follow him. But then he came back and stood in front of her.

She put her arms around his neck, and he lifted her up, revealing that she was wearing a full-body brace. He lifted her out of her chair and backed out the front door to the pickup truck, with her hanging from his neck. As he gently put her into the truck, everyone in the shop watched. No one said anything until a waitress remarked, almost reverently, "He took his vows seriously."

Hebrews 13:4 states, "Marriage should be honored by all."

The word "honored" means "to hold in respect, to value with high esteem, and to take seriously."

I love Debbie. She is my partner. My life companion. My best friend.

May God help us all to take our relationships seriously by being faithful.

2 comments:

Beth said...

That is a very sweet story. It shows the way marriage vows should be taken seriously. Before I was married we talked about how things would be when we grew old together. Like in this story, we envisioned ourselves holding hands and loving each other more than we ever had. Through sickness and health, for richer or poorer. There should be something in the vows saying, I promise that when we are having communication issues, I will go to counseling, when I'm sick, I'll go to the Doctor's, I promise to go to church with you, and I promise to work, because the bible says if a man doesn't work he shouldn't eat. Vows are very important and need to be honored. Marriage is about more than holding hands and being best friends. Those are things that happen when you love one another. Marriage is also about taking care of your own well-being for the sake of the other person. Don't take a vow as serious as marriage unless you plan follow through with it. You're not just promising your spouse, you're promising to God.

Rich Tatum said...

George,

I'm sorry for leaving an off-topic comment here (please feel free to delete this!), but I've been updating a spreadsheet that I maintain for my list of Pentecostal and Charismatic bloggers (PneumaBloggers).

I have email addresses for all but a handful of bloggers and I was wondering if you could stop by and leave a note for me at my contact page or via email [rich (dot) tatum (at) tatumweb (dot) com]

I don't publish the emails I collect, but I hang on to them in case I need to make an announcement or notify you of a change.

And if you want to be taken off the list, or have your entry modified, please let me know.

Happy blogging!

Regards,

Rich
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