Hello friends, Ann here.
I was sitting in the sunshine with some Christian friends the other day, and I said this:
“My marriage, as a Christian, is everything. If I pursue all kinds of other things in my faith life, but end up without my marriage, I will have lost a big treasure. Marriage is everything in a Christian’s life. It epitomizes what God is about. He is a God of covenant and he treasures marriage.”
Then I said —
Whoever dies first out of me and my husband, I want the coffin to be there and the one who is left standing to have finished the race. That will be my definition of success: If we have made it to the end, loving each other to the best of our abilities.
I have fought the good fight,I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Tim 4:7-8, NIV)
These friends were two couples. One had been married a year, and one married about fifteen years. They looked up at me and paused, as if perhaps they hadn’t thought of that picture of the coffin before. Perhaps they had. But it felt like a moment where I was sharing a thought that had been long worked out as a result of walking out a spiritually mismatched marriage and deciding how deep my commitment is to marriage. I think as SUMites we give an awful lot of thought to this topic.
What an exercise marriage is!
Last night, Bryce and I sat talking, and as we sat we kind of bubbled into a little disagreement. I said in a feisty way “Are we arguing here?” “No!” he said. “Well you’re being strong-willed,” I replied. “Maybe I am,” he said, “But so are you.” We do bicker a bit these days, having had a lot of time together and grown extremely familiar with each other.
We each genuinely think the other ‘always gets their way’ in our marriage LOL. How do we manage to both feel that way? Clearly we each compromise more than the other one realizes.
Well yes, marriage is as strange as childbirth, as beautiful as a garden, and as perseverant as running a marathon. And God made it.
So ….. whether you’ve been married a little or a long time, here’s a prayer for you today:
That you will run the race well, and finish well. Even if your spouse’s heart is far from you, may you finish well, whatever that looks like in God’s eyes.
Be blessed SUMites, and may your marriages be blessed.
Love,
Ann
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