We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!

By Rev. Peggy W. Lester –

In October I celebrated my 64th birthday. I can hardly believe it. Also, seems like only a few years ago Don and I married… so four days after my birthday, we celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary.

I can tell you the Lord was and is in the middle of both celebrations because He surely has kept me these years, as well as, keeping Don and I together. Little did we know when we knelt at the altar what our lives would be like!

Since I have been married more years than single, let me share with you a few things I have learned over the years.

First thing is, if you marry thinking the other person will make you happy, and then you are off to a bad start to begin with.
God has given you the partner you have to complete you, to supply what you lack yourself and what you will need in your life. I used to be threatened by the personal differences we have in our lives. I now view them as assets, not liabilities. I struggled with the differences for many years and I finally had to make the decision to accept or reject these differences. Once I accepted them, God gave me the grace I needed to live with them and even embrace them. Some marriages end when partners are threatened by strengths or weaknesses they lack in themselves but see in their partner. They don’t understand it is why God created marriage…we need each other. Selah, think about that!

The second thing is daily forgiveness.
This is a major part of your relationship in marriage. If you carry into tomorrow the unresolved issues of today, you probably will not make it in your marriage. (Your life will become bitter and not better.) Don and I alternate praying together every morning and every night. He will pray one day and I pray the next. I can say 100% that this is what has kept our marriage together. If you don’t pray at least once a day with your partner, (at meals doesn’t count), you probably have unresolved issues that could sabotage your marriage someday. (You have an enemy that will do his best to see to it.)

You may say, we have a happy marriage and don’t pray together and I’ll buy that; but, if you are Christians, how much richer could your relationship be when together you verbally place God in the center of your marriage daily! Not to mention the legacy and example it leaves your children.

The last thing I will mention is unconditional love for one another.
When you realize your marriage is not about you but about a bigger picture…this picture, being the “picture of Christ’s love for His bride”, will change the way you look at your marriage. Christ gave His life for the Church, His bride, and we are admonished strongly in the Word to do the same. Selfishness will destroy your marriage. It also destroys your witness for Christ.

Accepting each other, “warts and all”, forgiving and praying together, and caring about your witness for Christ, personally and in your marriage, are very important issues as a Christian. Don and I have not always done it right, I can assure you of that…but at the end of the day…Jesus is on the throne of our hearts and in the middle of our marriage. I pray He is in the middle of yours as well.

In these troubled days we are living, you can rest assured God will fulfill His promises made to us….”Keep Him first in all things and things will, in the end, work out for our good.” Don’t ever fool yourself into believing He will not punish sin. Selah, stop and think about these things…they are eternally important.

(This is why I love to do marriage conferences and work with young couples. Marriage is so very important and takes a very deep commitment to each other and the Lord.)

Peggy W. Lester is the founder of Spreading His Fragrance Near and Far, Inc. Her desire is to take the Gospel to those who haven’t heard, to disciple those desiring to grow in their faith and to share the healing balm of Jesus to those who have been wounded in life. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Christian counseling and is ordained through FCFI located in Indiana. She lives with husband, Don, about 35 miles West of Atlanta, Georgia. Website: www.peggywlester.com