Thinking About Grace...Part 7
For a lot of reasons, marriage is on my mind today.
Part of it is because of the sermon series I've been preaching for the last month on marriage, covenant and relationships. And a lot of it has to do with our 25th wedding anniversary, which is tomorrow.
But it's also because marriage is one of the places where I most experience grace. Aside from my savior, Jesus Christ, there is no one who has given me more grace than my wife, Cathy.
We were so young twenty-five years ago. We got married two weeks out of college. Three months later, to the day, we moved to Wilmore, Kentucky where I began taking classes at Asbury Seminary. She took jobs she didn't necessarily like so that we could pay the bills. She put up with a lot of "stuff" from her employers in order to support me while I was in school. There were difficult days—days when she didn't know if she wanted to go back to work, days when there was too much month at the end of our money, days when it seemed like school might go on forever.
Four years after moving to Wilmore, we moved back to Muncie where I was appointed to my first church and she began graduate school. I was ordained and she graduated with a master's and we had our first child all in the same year. Oh, and I went to Israel for the first time that year also. 1995 was a busy year!
She has put up with the times we have moved. She has quietly endured some difficult things in our churches. She was scared to death when I had my heart surgery fifteen years ago, but she was there every step of the way. She has put up with me when I have been difficult to live with, when I couldn't even explain what I was feeling or going through, when I doubted why she would even stick around.
In the midst of sometimes-chaotic days, she has been there, faithfully fulfilling her vows to love, honor, cherish...till death do us part.
That's grace. Cathy continues to pour out on my love that I don't deserve, though she tells me I do. (But since this is my blog and not hers, I can say what I want!)
Grace. As I said, aside from Christ's salvation, nowhere do I experience more grace than through the one who loves me even on my bad days. For all of us, there are some days when even love isn't enough. There are days when "the feeling" simply isn't there, when the romance isn't very strong, and still she loves me, holds onto me. That's...well, yes, amazing grace.
And where would we be without that sort of grace?
Part of it is because of the sermon series I've been preaching for the last month on marriage, covenant and relationships. And a lot of it has to do with our 25th wedding anniversary, which is tomorrow.
But it's also because marriage is one of the places where I most experience grace. Aside from my savior, Jesus Christ, there is no one who has given me more grace than my wife, Cathy.
We were so young twenty-five years ago. We got married two weeks out of college. Three months later, to the day, we moved to Wilmore, Kentucky where I began taking classes at Asbury Seminary. She took jobs she didn't necessarily like so that we could pay the bills. She put up with a lot of "stuff" from her employers in order to support me while I was in school. There were difficult days—days when she didn't know if she wanted to go back to work, days when there was too much month at the end of our money, days when it seemed like school might go on forever.
Four years after moving to Wilmore, we moved back to Muncie where I was appointed to my first church and she began graduate school. I was ordained and she graduated with a master's and we had our first child all in the same year. Oh, and I went to Israel for the first time that year also. 1995 was a busy year!
She has put up with the times we have moved. She has quietly endured some difficult things in our churches. She was scared to death when I had my heart surgery fifteen years ago, but she was there every step of the way. She has put up with me when I have been difficult to live with, when I couldn't even explain what I was feeling or going through, when I doubted why she would even stick around.
In the midst of sometimes-chaotic days, she has been there, faithfully fulfilling her vows to love, honor, cherish...till death do us part.
That's grace. Cathy continues to pour out on my love that I don't deserve, though she tells me I do. (But since this is my blog and not hers, I can say what I want!)
Grace. As I said, aside from Christ's salvation, nowhere do I experience more grace than through the one who loves me even on my bad days. For all of us, there are some days when even love isn't enough. There are days when "the feeling" simply isn't there, when the romance isn't very strong, and still she loves me, holds onto me. That's...well, yes, amazing grace.
And where would we be without that sort of grace?
You my friend are a blessed man, a blessing to me and a blessing to many. Keep living under His grace and Kathy's reflection of His grace.
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