Charity

Charity suffereth long and is kind; 

charity envieth not; 

charity vaunteth not itself; 

is not puffed up, 

doth not behave itself unseemly; 

seeketh not her own, 

is not easily provoked, 

thinketh no evil. 

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, 

but rejoiceth in the truth; 

Beareth all things, 

believeth all things, 

hopeth all things, 

endureth all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4~7

I am behind on a few things I was hoping to share. The love of my life and I recently celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary, and I planned on a long post about our exploits(along with fifty other random ones). Hubby thought that hiking the Grand Canyon from rim to river to rim would be a SUPER way to spend our 2oth. (I still think he was trying to get out of celebrating our 21st by doing me in!) Every page on the Grand Canyon site said "WARNING do NOT attempt to hike from rim to river to rim in one day!!!" My uncle who lives in Phoenix and who is a hiking enthusiast said, "I hiked from rim to river to rim in one day, once in my life. I couldn't walk the next day." Nice. 

Did we do it. Yes. Did I survive? Just barely. Did our marriage survive? You betcha. It was quite an accomplishment to achieve together.

But on to this post. I don't feel like I can get onto posting about other things until I get this one out.  My heart is aching for so many hurting marriages. Angry, hurting men and discontented, angry women. Couples that are falling apart daily before our eyes. Couples that want to get it right, but are just not sure how. Striving for the goal, but not reading The Map to get there.

Marriage isn't for wimps. It's not for the "I want it my way" types, or for the "I give up" types. I've been those types. Satan has had the both of us wrapped around his finger before. He tried to take us to rock bottom, but you know who's there? The ROCK, Jesus Christ and our wonderful Heavenly Father. His wonderful word, His wonderful church full of faithful friends to help us find our way back to HIS way for marriage. 

It's not for the faint hearted. It's hard work. It's Heaven on Earth. It's all fairy tales, and dirty dishes, late night romance and dancing in the living room, aggravation that he didn't get you an anniversary card, heaping your heart over flowing full of thankfulness that he holds you so tightly every night, hard work. It's forgiveness and laughter and  happily ever after, did he leave his dirty clothes on the floor again? It's less of self and more of him, because of HIM. It's stop being selfish and get your head out of the clouds, It's let's do it God's way and not my way. It's ALL about agape love, and then the romance, and lovin' fun good times come. It's mud tracked on the carpet I just cleaned, It's being chased down the hall and carried off to our room, wrestled and kissed, while the kids laugh...It's  remembering that I am created to be his help meet...did he leave the toilet seat up? All  rolled up into one. It is HARD WORK...And it is worth every second spent in prayer, worth every bit of hard work, sweat and tears you put in it.  It takes conscious, deliberate action, discipline, selflessness, not selfishness,  to make it work and it does NOT happen by chance.

Besides His Holy word, here are a few books that have helped me (that are helping me), though I give a disclaimer to not agreeing scripturally with every thing in the last two books, they are excellent encouragement for Godly marriages.

The Challenge of Being a Wife

Created to Be His Helpmeet

The Excellent Wife

I am praying for all of us to make our marriages what God would have them to be.

May God bless you as you strive for Heaven on Earth~

a very blessed wife, 

Debbie