March 24, 2012-- My Parents 39th Anniversary
I'm so thankful for their faithful marriage
And that it really is true--
I've seen them grow to love each other more...
And God more...
With every year that passes.
Excerpts from what my dad wrote today about their marriage (formatting changes by me):
Today we celebrate the covenant we made before God, friends, and family 39 years ago today.
The Lord God said,
“It is not good that man should be alone.
I will make for him a helper fit for him.”
~Genesis 2:18
Helper:
One who supplies strength in areas that are lacking in the one who is in need of help.
Fit for him: One who supplies strength in areas that are lacking in the one who is in need of help.
Fit does not mean “like him,” but rather, complementing him.
Where I am lacking...
And there have been and continue to be many places,
Sheree has been my helpmate for 39 years.
And there have been and continue to be many places,
Sheree has been my helpmate for 39 years.
When I began to get to know Sheree
(at a medical-student-nursing-student-noon-Bible-study at UCLA)
I couldn’t figure her out.
I am gray, drab...
Would just as soon stay inconspicuous.
Sheree professed her love for Jesus, street witnessed for Jesus…
She made me nervous.
She was completely modest; but she had a flare for color.
I still remember the purples and reds.
She wasn’t gray like me.
Who was this person? Was she safe?
39 Years…
Two sinful people who early in life, by His grace, were drawn to Jesus.
I, through evangelical Quakers.
Sheree, a Baptist.
Jesus drawing us both to Himself.
Saying yes to His drawing and then beginning like new babies,
The life of crawling, then toddling, then walking.
Our life picture is the triangle.
We’re at the base, separated from one another but our eyes are fixed on Jesus at the apex.
Over 39 years, as we have grown to love and worship Jesus more.
Our lives have moved closer to one another.
Increasingly complementing one another.
I would say that many times but not always, Sheree has been a step or two (or more)--
Smile.
Ahead of me.
But like Hebrews 3:12, we have been about stimulating one another to walk,
Fixing our eyes on Jesus.
And we've become more and more aware of the deceitfulness of sin in our own lives and corporately in the world.
You might guess that naturally people would grow more like one another when living in such close proximity, but the reality of sin is that it pays a wage--
Which is death.
Where sin abounds, self abounds.
But where Jesus reigns in two people--
There is regeneration, redemption and transformation.
It is still amazing to me how our lives and thought processes and desires have grown closer over the last 39 years.
The other day, I was praying for Sheree...
That the Lord would put it on her heart to reach out to a person we had just met.
Less than two minutes later, when I walked into the kitchen, she told me what the Lord had been prompting her to do.
It was exactly what I had been praying about.
My reaction-
God, You are so good and kind.
Thanks for loving us.
In the midst of the entire universe,
You care for us as individuals.
We know our sin nature. There is nothing intrinsically within us, to warrant this.
It is purely God’s love and mercy.
Thanks be to Him alone!
We’re at the base, separated from one another but our eyes are fixed on Jesus at the apex.
Over 39 years, as we have grown to love and worship Jesus more.
Our lives have moved closer to one another.
Increasingly complementing one another.
I would say that many times but not always, Sheree has been a step or two (or more)--
Smile.
Ahead of me.
But like Hebrews 3:12, we have been about stimulating one another to walk,
Fixing our eyes on Jesus.
And we've become more and more aware of the deceitfulness of sin in our own lives and corporately in the world.
You might guess that naturally people would grow more like one another when living in such close proximity, but the reality of sin is that it pays a wage--
Which is death.
Where sin abounds, self abounds.
But where Jesus reigns in two people--
There is regeneration, redemption and transformation.
It is still amazing to me how our lives and thought processes and desires have grown closer over the last 39 years.
The other day, I was praying for Sheree...
That the Lord would put it on her heart to reach out to a person we had just met.
Less than two minutes later, when I walked into the kitchen, she told me what the Lord had been prompting her to do.
It was exactly what I had been praying about.
My reaction-
God, You are so good and kind.
Thanks for loving us.
In the midst of the entire universe,
You care for us as individuals.
We know our sin nature. There is nothing intrinsically within us, to warrant this.
It is purely God’s love and mercy.
Thanks be to Him alone!
Being married to a physician is not easy.
I have thought over the years, it is comparable, but probably not quite as difficult, as being married to a pastor--
Many hours alone each week when your husband is tied up at the office or the hospital.
Charts late at night.
Time away spent caring for those not-in-your-own-family.
Often raising kids in isolation.
Having to make decisions “without consultation” because they have to be made.
Compound this with a husband, who because of childhood dynamics, brought quite a bit of interpersonal passivity into the marriage,
Confusing passivity for Christ-centered-peacemaking.
In all this Jesus has been merciful,
Repeatedly righting our ship at times when it was flailing in the winds of--
Not-so-great-personal choices...
As I commonly bowed to the pressures created by my fear of caring more about--
What others would say if I affirmed the needs of my family and wife,
Over the urgency of their requests.
I have thought over the years, it is comparable, but probably not quite as difficult, as being married to a pastor--
Many hours alone each week when your husband is tied up at the office or the hospital.
Charts late at night.
Time away spent caring for those not-in-your-own-family.
Often raising kids in isolation.
Having to make decisions “without consultation” because they have to be made.
Compound this with a husband, who because of childhood dynamics, brought quite a bit of interpersonal passivity into the marriage,
Confusing passivity for Christ-centered-peacemaking.
In all this Jesus has been merciful,
Repeatedly righting our ship at times when it was flailing in the winds of--
Not-so-great-personal choices...
As I commonly bowed to the pressures created by my fear of caring more about--
What others would say if I affirmed the needs of my family and wife,
Over the urgency of their requests.
Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 4:12,
(speaking of being less vulnerable when plurality fights against enemies)
“a three pronged cord is difficult to break.”
Because of Jesus’ grace and mercy our three pronged cord has grown stronger over the years.
At 39 years, we are:
1. Encouraging one another to remember that though we are citizens on earth, our primary citizenship is in heaven.
2. We are trying to stimulate one another to right worship, making Jesus our supreme treasure, fixing our eyes on Him and trying in this way to be less motivated by the dictates of other men’s opinions, particularly when they are not Scripture based.
3. In the last 6 years, we have set as a goal to connect with Jesus together daily through the Word, through prayer, through listening to Jesus-loving-men teach the Bible (we start our day this way almost every weekday).
4. We are trying to become part of God’s Story. We are looking for activity of the Holy Spirit in our own lives and the lives of people around us. We, as His children, are ambassadors for Jesus, trying NOT to be driven by the time-pressure-demands leading us to miss precious opportunities of seeing Him at work.
5. Luke 18 reminds us that we are entrusted stewards of the resources He has blessed us with
Marriage is the most intimate human relationship that can be had on planet earth.
Is it safe?
Our sin natures certainly make it challenging at times.
But where Jesus rules and reigns,
Marriage...
All 39 years of it,
Turns out to be both SAFE and GOOD!
Is it safe?
In The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe,
Mr. Beaver commenting to Susan and Lucy says,
“If there is anyone who can appear before Aslan without his knees knocking,
they’re either braver than me or else just silly.”
Lucy asks, “Then he isn’t safe?”
“Safe?” says Mr. Beaver…
“Who said anything about safe?
Course he isn’t safe.
But he is good.
He is the King, I tell you.”
Our sin natures certainly make it challenging at times.
But where Jesus rules and reigns,
Marriage...
All 39 years of it,
Turns out to be both SAFE and GOOD!
Best wishes,
Rich
I Thessalonians 2:13
Happy Anniversary Dad and Mom !!!
We love you
and
are so thankful for you...
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