Since the day we said our vows, our goal has been to walk worthy of the Lord and to keep onwalking until we see his face. Is that your goal as a married couple? It sure is ours. Since the day we committed our livesto Christ, it’s been our goal not to deny God anything.
The richness He gives us in oureveryday living can’t be described in mere human words. And the strength He gives us toserve and out serve each other… not to mention the joy, peace, and love is again,indescribable. We continually pray that when others see us, they will see Christ in us and will want toknow Him better—that we won’t distort the message of love Christ has for them through howwe live our lives. We also pray we will always live fully committed to our God and to eachother because of the vows we exchanged some 30+ years ago.
This week we’d like to share with you a true life testimony from the lives of two very ordinary people who have lived their married lives in extraordinary faithfulness to thecovenantal commitment they made to each other many years ago. The following thoughtswere put into words by Phil Calloway in an article that was featured in Marriage Partner-ship Magazine www.marriagepartnership.com several years ago. Phil had asked his parents who had been married for 57 years (at that point) to give him 5good reasons why they were still together. What his mom wrote out for him is simple, yetprofound.
Phil writes: At the top of her note, Mom had written: Five Reasons We’re Still Together, by Victor andBernice Callaway. It turns out my parents’ wisdom is just too good to keep to myself, sohere’s a summary of their 57 years of marital experience.
1. EXAMPLE: When we were married, we hardly knew about divorce. I guess everyone at ourwedding, including us, fully expected the knot to stay tied. We had watched theirmarriages. We had seen their faithfulness. We would stay faithful too. We realize youwon’t have that advantage, Son. Some of your closest friends may pack it in. But nomatter how dark the road gets, you will find bright examples of faithfulness. ANDWHEN YOU CAN’T FIND EXAMPLES, YOU CAN STILL BE ONE.
2. COMMITMENT: Sometimes I felt like walking out on Dad. And a few times I did. Early inour marriage I occasionally took long walks to get away from him. But I always returnedto his loving arms. We made a pledge before God that we would stay committed to eachother for life.
3. DEVOTIONS: Through reading God’s Word and praying together almost every night, welearned what God planned and expected for our marriage. We memorized verses thatencouraged us to be loving, kind and honest and to keep on forgiving. WE ASKED GODFOR GUIDANCE AND HE PROVIDED IT. We prayed for children and embraced each one ofthem as gifts from God.
4. TOGETHERNESS: As a Christian family we stuck together, warts and all. Though we oftenfailed, we’re learning to admit wrong and ask for forgiveness. We laughed lots. Wecried lots. We talked lots. We worked together and we played together.
5. GOALS: Since the day we said our vows, our goal has been to walk worthy of the Lord andto keep on walking until we see his face. Sometimes we’ve fallen flat on our faces. Butwhen that has happened, we’ve been given grace to get up and claim God’s promise: “MyPresence will go with you, and I will give your rest” (Exodus 33:4). Aging brings with it a whole new challenge. It’s no flat plateau; sometimes the hills seemsteeper and the cliffs more precarious, but we’re learning to trust God for what’s aheadand to thank him for the abundant and undeserved mercies of the past.
Not long after I read my moms note, someone informed me that another of my wedding-dayvideotapes had become obsolete. (Phil videotapes wedding on weekends as a financiallyrewarding hobby.) I thought about my parents standing at the altar on a day when thetemperature dipped to 45 below in Toronto. They knew that 10 days later Dad would go back to war, leaving his tearful bride wavingfrom a train station platform. So they joined hands and promised to be faithful. Theyhad no idea that their first child would die in their arms or that they would spendtheir entire lives below the poverty line. But they vowed to comfort each other, no matterwhat came their way.
By today’s standards Mom and Dad didn’t have much. Just $75, a solitary wedding ring anda suitcase full of dreams. More than half a century later, they still don’t have much. Buttheir dreams were never about good fortune. Instead they dreamed of children who wouldfollow God—and they got five of them. They dreamed of years of faithfulness—and they got57 of them. You can travel the world, but I’ll guarantee you one thing: you’ll never meettwo wealthier people. It’s our prayer that we’ll be able to pass onto our children a love story such as thismarried couple did.
What a precious inheritance it would be. And we pray that you’llalso be able to live out a wonderful love story for all who are in your life to witness.As we’ve heard it said before, “It’s not how you start the race that’s as important asto how you finish it.” Is there something you have in your relationship that’s separating you from living a“life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offeringand sacrifice to God” (as described in Ephesians chapter 5)? Is it distracting you fromliving Christ? Is it of more importance than living the love of Christ for the sakeof His Kingdom work?
It’s our prayer that if the love story you’ve been living falls short of that which theLord longs for you to demonstrate, you’ll take to heart and live out what we’re told inthe Bible where it says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw offeverything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run withperseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the authorand perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorningits shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who enduredsuch opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart”(Hebrews 12:1-3).
