Movement

10 years ago today I married my best friend.  I knew without a doubt that he was the one I wanted to stay with for the rest of my life.  We married and had many happy years together.  Somewhere, along the way life began to happen and small choices began to be made where those feelings began to diminish.  The emotions, on my end, that began to replace the love were bitterness, selfishness, and self-righteousness.  Luckily, for me, my husband stepped in and fought for us and our love and I feel so grateful today that I can say again I married to my best friend and I want to spend the rest of my life with him.

The last several months, I've been meditating on the concept of movement.  Two separate and unrelated books I read both brought up the concept and it has stuck with me in a way that has helped me to pause and think before I react to a situation.

Deuteronomy 30:19

I call heaven and earth to witness against

you today, that I have set before you

life or death, the blessing and the curse.

So choose life in order

that you may live, you and your descendants.

According to The Blessing by John Trent, the word "life" in this passage carries the idea of movement; a movement towards someone or something.  He goes on to say, that choosing life, means to step towards God and others.  The word "death" in this passage means "to step away from."  In this book, he uses the illustration of marriage to bring light to these two meanings.  He states, how people with a strong marriage have made the choice to step towards each other.  In contrast, he points out that people don't get married expecting to divorce. We also know, that it usually isn't one exclusive moment that causes a a divorce. However, over time, with choice after choice, we begin to see death creep in over many marriages and through those small choices death comes.

I can be a visual learner, and this picture has been powerful to me.  As I reflected on my past, I could see how I often treated situations as exclusive and unrelated.  For example, if I was offended by my husband I would let unchecked anger arise.  I would allow the situation to remain unchecked because I was not aware that my small choices were joining together to be important pieces in a bigger picture.  This visual of movement towards life or towards death is helping me to pause in difficult situations with others.  Our choices are not exclusive and unrelated and therefore we need to be aware of what path are moving on because our choices hold the power of life and death. 

I am overwhelmed with gratefulness for the power of love.

I Peter 4:8 says,

Love each other deeply, because

love covers a multitude of sin.

And I have seen it soo true in my own life.  When I couch my decisions in love, the movement is towards life and it is extremely worthwhile.  The last year of my marriage has been by far our best year.  I don't know where you are in your marriage (or it could be in any situation) but it is worth fighting for and doing things through the love of God and in His way.  It does produce the life, joy and peace He promises us.



I pray this visual of movement, encourages your heart to move towards the people God has placed in your lives.  It is not that we are going to be without trouble in our relationships, but rather, it is how we are going to choose to move within our relationships.  Are we going to allow God's love to move us towards life?

Below is a video my husband made for me to celebrate our love:

http://www.facebook.com/l/cAQAjpQgRAQDyFxht7zgFqOqWzfTuIZUDcZ-2qZEDpGNMOQ/www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoTwUiBYziw

In Christ,