334 SE Tecumseh Road  P.O. Box 5  Tecumseh, Kansas 66542  (785) 379-5005  Fax - (785) 379-5061

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In relationship Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16  Let marriage be held in honor by all (4). I’ve had occasion to speak about marriage with quite a number of people, especially recently. In a matter of days, Dottie and I will depart for our dream vacation in Ireland, in celebration of our forty years of marriage. Any of us that are married can surely testify to the challenges life offers on our journeys. Some have dealt with the loss of young children, and the way in which that may strain the marital covenant. Loss of valued work, financial struggles, bankruptcies, disagreement about child rearing, differences with parents or in-laws – O, that list can be very long. Let marriage be held in honor, indeed. Most especially, let the partners in that marriage honor one another, notwithstanding their differences and their disagreements.  You have come to know me, at least a little. Those of you at Tecumseh UMC have put up with me for more than four years already. Those at Big Springs UMC are really just beginning to know me. (I can hear you know – O, no, you mean there’s more to come???) Given what you have seen, and what you have heard – imagine being married to me for forty years! That’s forty years of obsessive cleanliness, out of control organizational frenzy, vociferous opinions about everything that’s wrong with the world (most of which could be solved if everyone just became a little more Dutch), overworking and over-worrying – to name just a few attributes. (O, no, you mean there’s more?) Now I don’t mean to portray Dottie as some sort of a saint. O, don’t even get me started. But this is what I do know, and share with confidence: we have worked hard and long to develop our relationship, and to honor our marriage. It did not just happen, and it did not happen without struggles, conflict, and pain. But here we are, forty years later, still in love and still married to each other.  We are in a relationship with Jesus. Sometimes I think that we expect such a relationship to be instantaneous, complete, and perfect. As a result we may become discouraged, and think of ourselves as failures if our relationship fails to live up to such (unrealistic) expectations. Some of us then choose divorce, believing our differences to be irreconcilable. And yet, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (8) Our Creator most assuredly understands who we are, and how we are. God does not give up on us, or divorce us when things become difficult. It is exactly at those times of trial that we can and should call upon God, even if in doing so we may express our anger and our pain. In so doing, we honor the relationship with Jesus and with God, we honor the marriage. It is not one which lasts 40 years, or 50 years, but one which lasts forever. - Pastor Piet – September 2, 2007  (PS : Dottie and I are on vacation now, and that means we will be honoring our marriage. I think it may be a good idea if I do not attempt to send weekly meditations from Ireland!)