True Love – From A Pastor's Heart

What will you do these next twelve days? Look for a partridge in a pear tree? How about five gold rings? Maybe eight maids a milking? Six geese a laying? (Better watch where you step!) No matter, they all came from your “true love.” Wow!

When you think of true love, I doubt you consider a partridge, milking a cow, seven swans gliding along on a pristine pond or drummers having at it! Now, I will give you this much, ladies, you might think of gold rings!!

So let’s set aside all of the aforementioned “true love” gifts and consider how you can give true love in the next twelve days between you and your spouse.

May sure your love relationship with the Lord is fresh and daily renewed (John 3:16; Matthew 22:37; John 15:9; Luke 10:42; Romans 12:1-2).
Share with your spouse the blessings of the love relationship between you and your Lord!
Join hands with your spouse and together talk/pray to Jehovah Who loves you with an everlasting, unconditional love.
Enjoy the marriage love relationship that God gave you by taking time to just look into each other’s eyes and share terms of endearment with each other and words of appreciation for each other.
After the kids go to bed, make popcorn and watch a Christmas movie. Be sure to snuggle up with each other and turn off your smartphone! Your relationship with each other is more important than your children and phone notifications.
Talk a walk in the snow holding hands all the while.
Sit by the Christmas tree and read Luke 2 or a Christmas devotional.
Make Christmas sugar cookies together and be sure to give each other some sugar!
Hang some mistletoe and . . . .
Give each other a small gift by the tree each night until Christmas; play Christmas music on Pandora.
Breakfast served to your spouse in bed on Saturday morning.
Without interruptions, sit by the fire and make up your own list of twelve true love gifts.

I promise you, this will be better than three French hens, four calling birds or ten lords a leaping!

Today, Denise and I celebrate 36 years of marriage! What a ride! We’ve had our “ups” as we anticipated what may come ahead, our “downs” that almost took our breath away, and “twists and turns” that had us leaning against each other and the Lord with our hands in the air or holding on for dear life!

Truth is, the journey has been, is, and will continue to be fantastic!! Outside of my personal relationship with God the Father through Christ Jesus alone (John 3:16; 10:28-30; Romans 10:9-13), being married to my precious, adorable sweetheart has been the best part of my life!

Having said that, today has not turned out as expected or planned. Our original destination for two nights was a beautiful bed & breakfast tucked back in the woods along Watts Bar Lake, Whitestone Inn. That had to be cancelled Monday morning.

Plan #2 was the option of a) Brunch at Well-Bred Bakery, Weaverville, NC, and then Afternoon Tea at the Biltmore Inn, followed up with a drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway to a cottage on Watauga Lake, or b) Brunch at Blackbird Bakery, Bristol, VA and dinner at The Mast Farm Inn, Valle Crucis, NC, with a stay at the cottage. That had to be cancelled last night.

For a long time now, I have cut out the Love Is cartoons from the newspaper (Yes, I still read a daily newspaper!), and leave them somewhere for Denise. Today’s cartoon sums up our 36^th Anniversary.

Love Is cartoon

No matter, we are still havin’ fun . . . even though Denise has been sick since last Thursday with last night being the worst. (Doesn’t sound like much fun to her, I’m sure, bless her heart.)

What a gal! Even though she didn’t feel good, she got up, fixed her hair, did the makeup routine, and put on something she knew I liked and would be comfortable for her. I “scolded” her for going to such trouble, but her reply, “I wanted to look good for you on our anniversary.” Tear in the eye right there and an enlarged heart! She’s a keeper!!

Near noon she said in the words of Pooh Bear, “My tummy’s rumbling.” “What sounds good to you,” I asked. Her reply surprised me, “Onion rings!” Well, that demanded a take-out order from Cheddar’s for a World-Class Chicken sandwich, cole slaw, and onion rings. As we sat on the back porch, one of our most favorite spots in the world, we enjoyed our meal, although she didn’t eat much, and I read my anniversary card from her. . . tears and an enlarged heart, again!

Today is a very special day for us, and we like to make much of special days. But in reality, today is like any other day because being married to Denise is special and marriage is very special. That’s why we work at it every day, seriously.

We’re still havin’ fun, and she’s still the one . . . ‘til death do us part or Christ comes in the rapture (1Thessalonians 4:13-18).

What’s fun special about your marriage today? It’s your choice.

From a pastor’s heart,

Dale

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