"Live Joyfully..."



I hope we never get too old for this.

 Ecclesiastes 9:9 "Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun."

This past week my husband celebrated his 63rd birthday.  To some of you, that may sound old. And to many of you, that may sound young!  Whichever way you view it, it's a very good thing to be having a birthday at all.  Over the past several years we have lost way too many of our good friends prematurely to cancer and other unexpected illnesses.  Not only has that created a real sense of sorrow and sadness within us, but it has also helped us to realize the preciousness of the gift of good health and life together.  Notice I said "gift"...it is not a guarantee.

Old King Solomon wrote a lot of very wise messages throughout the Bible.  Many of the examples of his great wisdom can be found in the book of Proverbs, The Song of Solomon, and the book of Ecclesiastes.  He often talks about the relationship between a husband and a wife...something about which I am certain he had a lot of experience.  It is written in I Kings 11:3 that "he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines..."   I'm not sure just how Solomon managed so many women...(or how they managed him!), but obviously life was quite different for his family than it is for ours today.  Thankfully so.  I don't think that Solomon lived all that joyfully with his "wife"...there was a lot of strife in his family, and God had to judge and discipline him rather sternly.

I did not intend to get into a theological discussion here regarding Solomon's behavior and family life.  I mainly wanted to take a moment to reflect on life in general...and to take a moment to thank the Lord for my husband, for the blessing of good health, and for the fact that, despite times of disappointment, sorrow, uncertainty and other difficult trials through which we have come in the past 41+ years together, the fact remains that we have come through them together.  I won't pretend that we have always faced our troubles joyfully, or even that we have always agreed on the path to follow, but the important thing is, when all is said and done, we did it together, and hopefully we will continue to do so for many more years...Lord willing...and with God's divine help.  God has not promised us a smooth path or a bed of roses, but He has promised to be with us...and never leave us or forsake us. 

Deuteronomy 31:8, "And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you.  He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."

Yes, I am thankful for my husband...and I am most thankful that together we have learned to trust in that wonderful Lord, Who has never forsaken or left us.  When all is said and done, that is what matters more than anything. Amen.