The Romantic Vineyard

This is how we treat our cars, our furniture, our things. But it isn’t how we are to treat our marriage.

Tom and I will soon celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary. We’ve been through many seasons–newlyweds, becoming parents, home-ownership, raising three children (including one miscarriage), homeschooling, church planting, small group leadership in our church, small business owners, becoming in-laws, becoming grandparents, saying goodbye (in this life) to terminal parents (Debi’s), caring for elderly relatives, practicing retirement. You name it, we’ve most likely experienced it. The only thing still on the horizon that we’ve yet to go through is old age, and it seems more real than ever lately.

Maybe it’s because it’s the start of a new year. 2015! How can it be that we’re already 15 years into the 21st Century? Time does seem to fly.

We can remember as if it were yesterday the Y2K craze. We were cautious, but not overly ridiculous about the switch from one millennia to the next. Tom was sharing with a friend yesterday how his biggest mistake was buying a very expensive phone system for our business because he was told they wouldn’t work when the calendar switched from 12.31.1999 to 01.01.2000. They were wrong, but we were the ones out the money. It was a lesson we learned, but hopefully won’t have to experience again in our lifetime.

Fear always makes us think irrationally. It takes us to the worst-case scenario causing us to respond in panic, not common sense. Fear is not to be trusted. Fear is our enemy and destroyer. Who, by fear, ever saved themselves? Fear robs us of today because it paralyzes our every thought, word and deed.

Back to the thought of experiencing old age. As young couples or middle-aged couples it’s easy to look at those older than you and think growing old is romantic and sweet. But there’s nothing sweet about our bodies wearing out. There’s nothing romantic about “when death do us part.” Just watch The Notebook and see how difficult it is to let go of a lifelong love.

Why do I bring this up? Because we do well to consider these facts. Ignoring them doesn’t make time stand still. In fact, it makes time seem to go faster. We need to be intentional with everyday, every moment that God gives us together. We have no guarantees for tomorrow. Our marriage is precious and so is our time on this earth.

Are you feeling like it’s time to trade in how you’ve been living to embrace something new? Then, we encourage you to seek The Lord while He may be found. He is the One who created us and breathed life into our souls. It is for Him that we live on this earth. Our marriage, our spouse is a gift to be enjoyed. But God is the only One who will never leave us. This is a promise we can cling to when facing fearful times.

Marriage is good–so good! But our relationship with God is to be foremost above all others. He will lead and guide us into the new year and into all the seasons of marriage yet to come–one step at a time.

It’s not a new marriage we need, but a new way of looking at our marriage and at each other.

“16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16 ESV