Larry and I have a four-word sentence that has been a theme of our marriage: "You can do it!" We look each other straight in the eye, grip each other's shoulders with our hands and with determination proclaim, "You can do it." The reason we can do it is that we've applied this promise from God's Word to our lives: "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13)
Once Larry and I counseled a young couple who supposedly had everything money could buy. The problem was that they fought all the time! They told us that one night they got into an intense argument and the wife finally yelled, "We don't agree on anything at all. Let's get a divorce!" She ran into the bedroom and he stormed out of the house, hollering back, "Okay! Okay!" He jumped into his Blazer and sped into the dark night. The word "divorce" shocked him. Suddenly he realized that he had real problems. He drove for hour in the mountains. About 4:00 a.m. his wife heard the Blazer squeal into the driveway. "Hey, honey," he shouted, "we both love the mountains! We do agree on one thing, so we can make it! Did you hear me, Barb? We both love the mountains!" He told us, "Larry and Gloria, I had to find something we could both agree upon. I found a basis on which to go back and begin to rebuild our marriage."
"Today is our eleven- month wedding anniversary and I can truly say it's been the happiest 11 months of my life. Marriage gets better every day and Larry gets sweeter, more considerate, and loving all the time. God sure has been good to us, and we know that He brought us together for His work and each other. I only wish for more couples to be as happy and close as we are." When I read that, I got warm fuzzies all over again.
"Till death do us part!" Those words should be written in several places in our homes to remind us of our binding agreement to stay together. A few years ago I saw a TV program that showed a couple being married in church. I was stunned as I heard their vow, "As long as we both shall love."
Marriages are becoming like the thousands of products advertised as "disposable."
Marriages are becoming like the thousands of products advertised as "disposable."
In October of 1971, on our 6th wedding anniversary, Larry's brother, Lowell, and his wife, Connie, gave us six big and beautiful clay coffee mugs with geese engraved on them. Of course, Larry loved to go goose hunting at the time so he doted over them immediately. Because we always begin each morning with our devotions and coffee date, we embraced them dearly and they have been our daily date mugs for these past 35 years. They are literally the only coffee mugs we use at home.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine…" (Proverbs 17:22). Someone once said, "The couple (or family) that laughs, lasts." It's true!Laughter is a great tension-breaker. I used to be a worry-wart. I was a people pleaser. I was a perfectionist-always concerned about what other people were thinking. I missed out on a lot of good times because I'd never learned to sincerely and freely laugh. I'd never trained myself to find the pleasant and entertaining good things in everyday living. I allowed everything to become a crisis!
A good marriage doesn't just happen. It takes work! Some people say that marriage is a 50-50 partnership, but I disagree. A good marriage is both partners giving 100% of themselves to make their marriage work effectively. And a good marriage takes LOVE, God-given love.
In Genesis 2:24 God says, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." This verse says a lot in a few words. First of all, when you find the mate with whom you want to spend the rest of your life, you willfully make the decision not to remain single. You make the choice to take your life, ideals, goals and plans and merge them with your mate's; you join in holy matrimony before God, becoming one unit.
This month Gloria and I celebrate another milestone of our marriage and ministry. It hardly seems possible that these 40 years have flown by so quickly...
Gloria shares how necessary it is for a healthy marriage to find time (even 15 minutes) to "date" one another. These little vacations will be the strength and spice of your marriage relationship!