May 16, 2012
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Anniversary!
I realize it would be cliche to open this post with, “Wow, the years go by so fast!”
But they do.
A mere 14 years ago, I stood on a scarlet & white church platform and pledged my troth to Coart Ramey. I had no idea what that meant. I mean, I thought I did. But what did I know, what did I know of Love’s austere and lonely offices? (“Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden)
[OK, you can call me on that one. Too melodramatic. LOL. I don't get to claim Hayden's line.... haven't lived that kind of sacrifice yet. But I really DO love that poem. Anyway.....]
God is so good to us, to sweetly shove us into close proximity with other people and knock off the rough edges. Young love stands against the world, optimistic and passionate. It stretches for a marathon but has the experience only for sprinting.
I’m going to unabashedly steal this from Coart. It’s how he explains real love when someone asks:
Every day I wake up and I have to decide if I’m going to love Coart more than I did yesterday. If I’m going to love him more than I love myself.
Every moment is a choice. It’s not really about sparks, wild circumstances, crazy parties, sexy lingerie, or teeth-gritted endurance. Perhaps the frills are lacy and racy, and there are seasons where love is more about grinding, angry determination than a fluttering heart and the rich smell of a familiar cologne.
But usually, love simply means that I have to decide to set aside what *I* want for the sake of another. It’s a beautiful, delightful sacrifice.
God has indeed been good to me. He provided a friend-husband who loves deeply, thinks deeply, feels deeply, ministers with almost reckless abandon at times (you didn’t think Coart had “reckless abandon” in him, did you?), goes out of his way to help people, and opens the Word of God to preach it with more clarity and authority than almost anyone else I know. (And I wish he had the chance to do it more often.)
This photo absolutely cracks me up.
Comments (1)
Happy Anniversary!!!
(just a couple days late!)