My parents were married in 1948 and stayed married until my father passed in 2009 from complications of Parkinson's Disease. I wonder sometimes what their marriage was like in those early years, before the four of us "blessings" arrived. Even though you grow up within your parents' marriage, you don't necessarily know what their relationship was like for them, the high and low points, the unfulfilled expectations, the private joys.
This morning Pastor Carol preached "Loving for Life" about marriage, what makes it great, what makes marriage last until death do you part. Or not.
She read and expounded upon that wonderful wedding scripture, I Corinthians 13: "Love is patient and kind...does not insist on its own way...does not tally up grievances...Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things...Love never ends." She also mentioned that this scripture is popular at funerals as well. I could see that--as is commonly said, life and marriages are a matter of beginning and ending dates and the hyphen in between.
Walking out the door afterwards, everyone I spoke to said, "Wow, that sermon hit home."
Over Sunday dinner at Aunt Alice's Kitchen, my sister-in-law said, "I know now I've been trying to change my husband instead of myself."
I said, "I see that while my husband isn't big on giving gifts, he shows his love by doing things for me."
My sweet husband Jesse grinned and said, "I liked what Pastor Carol said about communication, how important that is. A lot of couples don't communicate with each other like we do."
Valentine's Day has slipped by--and I guess I can let it go that he didn't give me flowers. After all, he is at this moment slaughtering mice for love of me. (How those mice got into the house in the first place was my fault and a story for another day.)