Skip to content
Posts Tagged: lessons about marriage
“FORTY-FIVE YEARS OF LEARNING TO LOVE”
On August 4, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments
- down to earth believer
Today, my bride and I celebrate forty-five years of being married. I am more in love with her than ever, more than I ever thought I could be.
I am still a beginner at this love business, but beginners can teach a lot. So, here are some rather random thoughts about love and marriage from this beginner.
- Love is not something you fall into. It is a discipline to which you commit yourself, like running a marathon, but without a finish line.
- When I am not acting or feeling lovingly toward my sweetheart, I need to change me, not her.
- Heraclitus said, “You never step into the same river twice.” He was right about more than rivers. Relationships are the same. I never wake up with the same women twice. She has changed and so have I. There is never a reason to get bored.
- To restate Heraclitus, there is enough mystery and joy in every face to last a lifetime.
- Marriages are not made in heaven. Neither are they forged in the fires of hell. They may be suggestive of either heaven or hell (or both), but they are built on earth.
- Gratitude is the lifeblood of a loving relationship. If I am not being grateful every day for this woman who has loved me all these years, I am in trouble and headed for more.
- If I want my love to love only me, I am opting for less love, rather than more. She loves our children and grandchildren, making lovely things, baking, flowers, serving others, our dog. I should be glad, and most of the time I am! The more she loves people and things other than me, the more she has love for me.
- I also need to extend my love to others. To limit my love to my love is to limit my love for my love.
- Laughter is even better than making love. Perhaps laughter is making love.
- Sharing good memories together is wonderful. So is sharing good forgetories.
- The past needs to be buried quickly. It needs to be given a decent burial, yes. But it does need to be buried.
- The more I love my God, the more I love my wife. The converse is also true.
Happy anniversary, dearest. I hope that we have many more.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- DTEB, “Getting Christ and Ourselves Back in Focus” November 11, 2024“Col. 3:1 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden […]
- “Search Me!” October 27, 2024“Psa. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, English Standard Version) I am participating in a Bible study, and this is a prayer […]
- “Christian Speech” October 26, 2024“Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Foulkes, in his excellent commentary on the Book of Ephesians, writes the following, which I quote at some length: “29. Now the […]
- “God is in the Details” October 11, 2024“The devil is in the details.” (A general saying, often quoted by lawyers, reporters, and negotiators.) “God is in the details.” (Me, almost certainly not original.) “Luke 12:7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Jesus) God does not micromanage, but God […]
- “Grandma’s Pump” October 8, 2024When I was a little critter, I would stay at my grandma’s house for a night or two sometimes. I liked this for a lot for many reasons. One thing I liked about staying with her was that Grandma’s house was much more technologically advanced than ours was. For one thing, she had indoor water—sort […]
- “Wearing the #14 Wrong-Side-Out” October 5, 2024Pete Rose, #14, is dead. Many of the old guys with whom I play softball watched him play and appreciated him greatly. I do as well. He was one of the greatest players who ever played the game. Yes, he admitted (eventually) to betting on baseball. But many of us still regard him as one […]
- “Passing Along the Love (and a Link)” October 4, 2024Several years ago, a friend of mine put me onto a daily meditation by Richard Rohr and friends. I don’t read them all the time, but I probably should. They are good! I thought that today’s writing was especially good, and I also figured that this would be a good way to post something. I […]
- “Witnessing Versus Being Witnesses” September 19, 2024“Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, Acts 1:2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after […]
- “A Bathroom Prayer for Hurting Hands” September 11, 2024A week ago Sunday, my hands were hurting so badly at church that I went to the bathroom to run hot water over my hands. Arthritis perhaps, or carpal tunnel, or general orneriness—I don’t know why my hands hurt, but they do. They have for years. So, while I was running hot water over my […]
- “Waiting and Seeking” September 10, 2024“Lam. 3:19 ¶ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! Lam. 3:20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Lam. 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Lam. 3:22 ¶ The steadfast love of the LORD […]
Recent Comments