Devotion - Monday, January 24

It sometimes seems as if old people (one of which I am rapidly becoming) have a significant meaning for every day on the calendar. Well, today is one for me. My parents were married on this day, in 1942. They got married at the Church Parsonage. They had two friends present as "witnesses." The details of their first days are still a fuzzy memory, but it was some time before they told everyone and thus began to make a home together. They moved in with parents for the first months.

They remained together for nearly sixty-five years. When Daddy died, Mother began a steeper decline and died two years later.

It is from my parents that I learned what it means to love. I learned what it means to be married. "You decide," mother told me, "and then decide again and again and again." There was never any denying (in my household) that it is tough to remain firm in that decision. There would come a boat load of strains and stresses and numerous temptations to turn from the commitment. "But you made a promise," and if your promise can't be trusted then all sorts of things fall apart. It isn't merely that the other cannot trust you, you soon begin to wonder if you can trust yourself.

There was one particular time of which my parents spoke. Turning to Mother Beam, they heard this advise, "God will provide." My parents were regular church members, they participated fully. They weren't overly pious, we didn't have family Bible studies nor did they live up to Martin Luther's hope that parents would be the one to teach children the 10 Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Apostles' Creed. But they did affirm for me a deep trust in God's ever present ability to assist us.

We make commitments in our lives. It is important that we live up to those commitments. At stake is more than how others will see us, at stake is the way we understand ourselves and the foundation upon which our lives are built. Relationships (human relationships) are the testing ground for our relationship with the Divine. One will automatically be reflected in the other.