What I’ve Learned From 40 Years of HIS Mercy and Loving Kindness ENDURING

I can give thanks TO the Lord for SO many things! But it is during the month of September that I am always reminded to give thanks for something very specific… something very near and dear to my heart…  and with each new year of life, the more precious it becomes.

On September 18, 1982, an 18 year old girl anxiously walked down an aisle to join a 19 year old boy and make an incredibly big promise that neither one of them would be able to keep.

That 18 year old girl was me. Just one month before turning 19. It took years of trying and failing for my husband and I to finally realize how VERY desperately dependent we were on Christ to make this work. I couldn’t do it. He couldn’t do it. We failed miserably. It has taken 40 years of painful, sometimes reluctant meetings at the foot of the Çross to begin grasping how I cannot love him the way he needs to be loved. I need to be an empty vessel FOR Christ to love him THROUGH me. He could not love me the way I needed to be loved. He had to be an empty vessel FOR Christ to love me THROUGH him. It seems SO simple, doesn’t it? But it is not that simple! It goes against every part of our fleshly human nature. But that’s where the Lord’s mercy and lovingkindness comes in! And that mercy and lovingkindness endures, it has no end… it goes on forever.

This might offend some, but I cannot complete my husband and he cannot complete me. Unlike many popular songs, we are not equipped to complete each other… Only Christ can do that! We can complement each other. We can even balance out each other’s weaknesses and when we are allowing the Spirit of God to flow through us to each other and the others around us, HIS Mercy and Loving kindness are the spotlight! We make a powerful team when we function like that.

With each number added, I get more and more humbled. I can’t boast about 40 years.

I know so many people who started out with a better spiritual walk than we did, but they didn’t make it. I know people who had better motives, better plans, more knowledge, more experience, less baggage than us… and they didn’t make it.   My heart is tender toward them.

With each number added, life together gets more precious.

I know so many couples who started out like we did, but “till death do we part” came sooner than expected. My heart is tender toward them. 

I want to offer this encouragement to the ones who’s “till death do we part” came sooner than you expected, or you started out together and were unable to stay together, or you are still together but hanging on by a thread, or there is more sickness than health, and more poorer than wealth, or you are desperately longing for a mate and so tired of waiting… HE sees your broken heart and your broken dreams. HE sees you trying. HE sees your weariness. HE sees your struggle. HE sees your loneliness. HE hears your cries. HE hears your prayers.    

Meet HIM at the foot of the Cross and Give thanks to the LORD for HIS mercy and loving kindness ENDURES forever!  It Endures when you have nothing else left to give.

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