Thursday, August 15, 2013

But the greatest of these is love

My husband and I will be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary next week.  Traditionally, this means we should buy each other something bronze or some pottery.  However neither of us has ever been the type of husband or wife that puts much emphasis on material possessions when it comes to anniversaries, Valentines Day, Sweetest Day or the like.  We have usually always given each other a sweet, sentimental, and sometimes corny/mushy card, and then we take a night for ourselves to eat dinner or catch a movie.  We are very easily satisfied.  Sounds boring, right?

As we approach our anniversary this year, I have a whole different outlook.  This is our first year as a married couple celebrating our anniversary and as disciples of Jesus Christ.  I recently reflected on one of my favorite scriptures, 1 Corinthians 13:4-13.

"Love is patient (him, not me), love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered.  It keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me (almost all of them).  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."

My goal in the upcoming year(s) is to do what I can to better embody this scripture as a wife and woman of God.  We have been through a lot together over 12.5 years of relationship and 8 years of marriage, and I'm beyond happy to say today that we are exactly where we were meant to be: together, happy, raising a family, and praising and glorifying God in any way that we can.