This Sunday, Floyd and I will be celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary. When we got married, we agreed that divorce was not an option, and if we ran into marital challenges that we would take them to the Lord and let Him help us work them out. And in those 35 years, we’ve faced quite a few challenges – from raising a mentally handicapped daughter to extended periods of separation due to military duty and other employment obligations to disagreements on child discipline.
Floyd said to me one time, “If you ever leave me, you have to leave the kids with me. And, likewise, if I ever leave, I leave you with the kids.” I thought it was funny that he would say that after we had decided that divorce wasn’t an option. Anyway, when we lived in Georgia and the kids were still young, we had both had an incredibly stressful day – with the children and with each other. So I said, “That does it! I’m leaving and you’re stuck with the kids.” He said, “Not if I get out that door first.” (Because whoever left wasn’t permitted to take the kids.) We both ran for the front door. It was a great stress reliever and brought some humor back into our day.
About four years ago when our pastor got real sick and was battling cancer, he asked Floyd to help with some of the teaching. And when he was on chemo, it was all he could do to preach Sunday morning, so Floyd brought the SS lesson and very often taught the Wednesday night Bible study. Occasionally, he even brought the Sunday evening message. Although Pastor Craft had others helping with the messages, he mainly relied on Floyd.
One day, I realized something. Floyd was treating me better than he ever had our entire married life. I didn’t know that life could be so sweet. He was not only in the Word of God every day, but he studied and studied to prepare those lessons, and he bathed them in prayer. Then three months ago, he went in for emergency open heart surgery, and during his recovery, he didn’t treat me so well. He was cranky and short with me a lot. So I’m guessing that his Bible study and prayer had slipped quite a bit. Boy, I saw the difference, and I saw the change. Then it occurred to me; I’m no different. I’ll bet I do the exact same thing. My life reflects my prayer and study time. I have never had the need to pray that hard and study that seriously to prepare message after message like Floyd did during our pastor’s illness, even while he was working full time. Nor has he since we changed churches. But how much time are we willing to invest in one-on-one time with the Lord – in His Word and in prayer. Time in God’s Word is never wasted, and it will reflect the light of our Savior in everything we do.