Looking Back on Love

Love is Patient

Love is Kind

Twenty years is a long time, at least I think it is!  Think about it, when a person reaches 20 years of age, they've grown up and have hopefully left the home. 

 Our twentieth Anniversary is coming up in about 3 weeks.  
On June 22,1996 Steve Hall and I, Cathy Hall said, "I do" and made a life long promise to God and to each other.  Here is a portion of the vows we made to each other that day: "... I promise to grow along with you as we both are being conformed to the image of Christ, and to be willing to face the changes that accompany growth." ""Where you go, I will go (North Carolina, Tennessee, New York & Ohio) and where you stay, I will stay, your people will be my people and your God, my God."..."

Now as I'm headed home, from the early celebration of our anniversary, (Steve is staying for a business conference he is attending.) I reflect on how our love has grown and helped to mold us into the image of Christ that we pledged nearly twenty years ago!  The thing that strikes me the most is the patience that has developed.  Through good and bad and the in between times we've learned the art of being patient with each other.

For example, on our trip to celebrate our anniversary one of the activities we did was to take a pretty strenuous hike.We did this to reach the much coveted sight of the Delicate Arch.  Background story: A few years ago I was diagnosed with an aneurism coming out of my heart.  The hike was a challenge, and I found myself stopping often to catch my breath in the high altitude.  Breathless, I"d wait till I knew I was good to go.  My husband could have easily moved on and I even told him to do so, because I knew I was holding him up!  But he didn't.  He waited with me.  Lots of people passed us and I felt like a slow poke.  I'm used to running on high gear and being on the run, but I just physically couldn't do it, in good sense!  Love is patent- we arrived at the Delicate arch together!

On our way back down, the hike was pretty much downhill. I wanted to take off and run with nothing to cause inertia.  No breathlessness now!  Background story: A few years ago when moving Steve's Mom, Steve fell going down a hill while pushing a dolly.  The fall ended in a broken ankle, being broken in three places. Or to put it this way, there are three bones that hold the ankle into place and he broke all three of them! (He's not one to do things half way!)He ended up with a plate and screws in his ankle!

As you can imagine the hike going downhill was hard on his ankle.  I started to run.  As a kid, I remember running down a mountain trail in upstate N.Y. and so that inclination to just take off tugged at me.  As I started, I realized my husband was having a difficult time.  I remembered how kind and patient he had been with me on the hike up.  How could I do any different?   It would be selfish to do otherwise!  We finished the hike together!

In preparing me to take the rental car back to the return and find my way to the airport, my thoughtful husband showed me how to get from the hotel in downtown Denver to the Interstate.  He loaded the address into the GPS and gave me lots of tips on how to get from here to there. As I drove to the airport I wasn't a nervous wreck, which I would have been without my husbands predetermined directions.  He also fixed my cracked screen protector on my phone while we were at the hotel.  He put on a nice smooth, new one!  He"s done lots of kind things for me, these are just a couple examples of them!  -Love is kind.

I love this man!  I told him, "Even though I can't figure you out sometimes and you drive me crazy ( sometimes) that I really do love you! And if given the opportunity, I'd do it all over again!"

I just recently came across a quote that said,"What counts in making a happy marriage is not how compatible you are but how you deal with incompatibility." ~ Leo Tolstoy  If I said that we've aways had smooth sailing, I'd be lying.  We've had our differences, but God has helped us learn to love each other in and through our differences.  To embrace the things that make us different. To depend on the strengths the other brings to this marriage.  To help the other in their weaknesses. Being patient with each other.  Praying for understanding when I can't understand him on my own!  Yeah, that's what makes us strong!  And by God's grace, that's what keeps us together!

Simply and honestly I wouldn't have it any other way!  God's been good to us!  I'd like to wrap this up by including a portion of scripture that was in our wedding vows: (taken form Joshua 24:15) "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. ..."

Why Go to God in Prayer?

Heavy hearted.  That's how I approached my prayer time this morning.  Feeling burdened as a sister in Christ  and as a broken hearted, concerned citizen.  Today's National Day of Prayer and here I'd dropped the ball to speak out about it, or promote it.  Too burdened with  concerns for friends and relatives going through some really heavy stuff to think about promoting this event. Better luck next year!

As I gushed forth my concerns, fears and woes it's like God stopped me in my tracks!  I was outside, trying to enjoy nature, at the time.  I heard birds singing and saw them flying and singing, having no worries. God reminded me that He cares for the birds and that He cares so much more for us humans.  I mean think about it, God takes care of the birds.  We in comparison, He loved so much that God sent His only Son, Jesus to die for us.  He didn't send Jesus to die for the birds (I'm not trying to be sacrilegious here) and yet He cares for them.  Matthew 6:26 NLT "Look at the birds.  They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?"How much more does He care about us?

I changed the focus of my prayer as I paused and considered these things and began to ask myself, "Why do I go to God in prayer?". I quickly remembered to WHOM I was praying to.  God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. In Isaiah 66:1 God says of Himself,"...Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool...." The countless stars in space, the galaxies beyond our own Milky Way, the planets in their rotations, the order in Creation, all around us.  I put my eyes back on God. I began to feel so small and humbled that God would even allow me to approach Him from my broken heart, standing there in our back yard.

The heavens are His tabernacle, He knows our ins and outs, our ups and downs.  Psalm 139:3 NLT
"You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do."He cares.  Beyond caring or having empathy, HE IS GOD!  He,"... is ABLE to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault." Jude1:24 NLT.

I pray that as I share what God opened my eyes to this morning, that it will be an encouragement to someone today.  He is God.  His arm is not limited by our limitations.  He uses things, events and people for His own purposes.  His ways are higher than ours. "For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher  than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."Isaiah 55:9 NLT He is beyond comprehension, and I want it that way!  I don't want to go to a god that I can figure out!  I want a God Who is real, Who is loving and Who is Able to do more than I could ask or even imagine! Eph.3:20 NLT:  "Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power to work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Today, I commit my worries, fears and concerns to His capable hands.  I will not fret about them, and when I am tempted to fret about them, I will remind myself to Whom I go to in prayer!