The Way of Love

Today, in the midst of our unkind circumstances, we are standing strong together on our ten year anniversary. We realize that in this day and age, it is quite the accomplishment...especially when we were all so sure "Bennifer"and Brad & Jen were going to stay together forever! Well...best wishes to TomKat! Hah! No, but really...we never thought we would be where we are today in our marriage, friendship and partnership after ten years. For those of you who don't know our story, we met twenty days before I was leaving to finish up my degree in Auckland, New Zealand. After only a week, we knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. I left in faith, and we corrosponded through phone, email and letters. From the day we met to the day I walked down the aisle was exactly ten months...and we were apart for about nine months of that time. On the night of our wedding, we took a redeye flight to our honeymoonn destination. When we arrived in Cali, it was then we realized we had never truly been alone together before! The scripture on our wedding invitation, right at the top, read "As for GOD, His way is perfect;" Psalm 18:30. Through the past ten years, and even this very day, we still believe in the power of this scripture for our lives and marriage. We did not know each other at all when we got married. We did love each other...and through the years, time and time again chose to keep loving each other, but only now do we realize that we really have learned HOW to love each other in its truest form. We have learned to be thoughtful in our responses, purposeful in respecting each other, humbled in our forgiveness, empathetic in embracing each other's fears, and thoughtful in our words and actions to make our marriage thrive on a daily basis. We have come to a place in our marriage that most couples dream of...

1 Corinthians 13:3-8,12,13 (The Message)
The Way of Love

So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts GOD always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as GOD sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: TRUST steadily in GOD, HOPE unswervingly, LOVE extravagantly. And the best of the three is Love.