Faithfully United

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. ~~Ephesians 5:31-33 NIV

Twenty-one years ago today, Eldon and I eloped. We skipped all the hoopla and got married. We were in our young 20’s and only knew each other for a few months. We knew all the advice we’d receive would be contrary to what we wanted to do, so we just skipped it. I know some people who were skeptical about our relationship and how long it would last. And yes, I agree with statistics, most rushed marriages fall apart just as quickly as they jumped into them. (And I don’t recommend other couples do what we did.)

However, we defied statistics. Many years ago, my husband and I sought out Christian marriage counseling. We took this test to determine our compatibility. When we met with the pastoral counselor to receive the results, he told us that 85 percent of couples with our scores end up divorced. I remember looking this man in the eyes and stating, “Well we fall into the other fifteen percent.” We finished that session but never returned.

We’re not any different than other couples. We have our fussy moments with each other. We have disagreements. We have fun times too. What makes our marriage different? I believe it is commitment; being faithful to one another. We’ve been faithful to our vows before God and to each other.

Faithfulness is a part of the fruit of the Spirit. We see throughout Scriptures how God is consistently faithful to His Word and promises. In Chris Tiegreen’s devotion, Walk with God, he wrote, “God, however, is constant. His faithfulness reaches to the skies (see Psalm 36:5; 57:10; 108:4), and His love and faithfulness are semantically paired so often that they are clearly intertwined. His love is unchanging; there is nothing fickle about it—not even from generation to generation (Psalm 100:5). True faithfulness endures forever (Psalm 117:2). It can do no other.”

Therefore, we must have Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to have the fruit of the Spirit. Then we can exercise faithfulness. In our marriage, there have been times our flesh wanted to take over, but the yielding to the Holy Spirit is better. Each of us has remained faithful to God and to each other. That is why I believe our marriage has lasted twenty-one years. And that’s why I believe we will enjoy each other until death do we part (which I hope is many, many more years). We’re faithfully united to each other and to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Engrafted by His Grace--

20th Anniversary Vacation

My husband & I spent our 20^th anniversary in the Texas Hill country. We spent time alone away from kids, jobs, to-do lists, and baseball.

GUADALUPE RIVER

First we rented a cabin on the Guadalupe River. We went kayaking down the river. The water was slow and low. A few places we had to carry the kayak over the rocks, but most of the time it was great. We had a picnic on a rock under a cypress tree. I took a disposable camera on this trip as I didn’t want to risk damage to the digital camera. I’ll post a picture when I get it back.

SAN MARCOS

We drove into the city of San Marcos. We went to a dry form cave that is on the only fault line in Texas. We went to see where the springs come out of the aquifer. We also went to the outlet stores. (I’ll touch on this later.) We enjoyed a great dinner on the San Marcos River.

ENCHANTED ROCK STATE PARK

We booked a rock climbing excursion. I recently completed a Bible Study by Angela Thomas called “Do You Think I’m Beautiful.” In this study we faced a segment on fear. “Perfect love cast out fear.” She asked, “What thing would you do if you had no fear?” I told my husband I wanted to have an adventure activity on this trip to overcome fear. So we went rock climbing. It was an adventure. I confess; I felt afraid. I did it anyway—afraid. I climbed the first climb. Then repelled from another rock. On the second climb, it was the most difficult. I almost had an anxiety attack as I could not cross over a large crag on the way down. I looked down from the where I hung from the rope and saw the depth. Flashes of scenes from “Cliffhanger” went through my mind. My sweet guide, Cheri, talked me through every step to get my feet to safety. I was shook up, but safe. Then after a break, I climbed another cliff and did great!! It feels so good to conquer fear!!

LUCKENBACH

Well country folks who grew up with Country & Western music cant be in the Texas Hill Country without going to Luckenbach, Texas—the unofficial home of Willie Nelson and the late Waylon Jennings. They good folks at Luckenbach held a birthday bash for the late Waylon Jennings. We visited, listened to a few bands, bought a few souvenirs and “got back to the basics of love in Luckenbach.”

The we went on to our hidden away cabin in the country with a hot tub outside under the pecan trees.

SHOPPING

Okay—what is a vacation without shopping? Yes, my husband was kind enough to take me shopping at the outlet center in San Marcos. He also took me antique shopping where I bought some “antique” books. We also bought souvenir t-shirts. So here’s a picture of a few things I bought.

At the end of our trip we decided to go to Austin to go shopping for him. We didn’t find exactly what he wanted in Austin. So we stopped and looked on the internet (what a day we live in to stop places and have internet service). He saw what he wanted in downtown San Antonio. So we drive to San Antonio. And here is what he wanted to buy:

We brought this cousin of Bigfoot home. Do you see the irony here? What a woman shops for and what a man shops for? Hmmmm.

Thanks for your prayers! We had a great time.

All star baseball games start tonight for my youngest boy. I hope to return to blogging later this week.

Ya’ll be blessed now in Christ our Lord!!