Cindy and I were blessed this past week to go off with two very special friends of ours, Hal and Sylvia, for a very special celebration. The main reason for coming together was to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Hal and Syl on July 1, but also to celebrate Cindy’s and my 52nd wedding anniversary coming up in a few weeks, and to celebrate the 42nd anniversary of our meeting Hal and Syl and sustaining such a long and close relationship with them in spite of them living 350 miles away in south Florida.
We met in a nice location on July 1 where we could have a lot of fun and good food and see new things, but the focus of the celebration was on what we had achieved through God’s blessing over so much of our adult lifetime. Hal and Syl wanted to renew their vows so they asked me if I would lead that service for them. Of course, I was honored to do that for them so when we met up on July 1, that service was how we started our time together on this trip. To me, it was a very meaningful service as I took this responsibility seriously because I knew how much 50 years of marriage meant to the two of them.
After the service ended, we spent the next few days reminiscing over our lives, and all the good times we had whenever we got together or traveled together. Hal and Syl got to know our children as they grew up and were considered very close family members to us and our children. Hal and I did do some work together for a number of years, and it is the reason we initially met. But the relationship the four of us built and sustained was about so much more than that.
Life is all about the relationships we form and sustain through our lifetimes with our families and the friends we choose and include in our world of influence. It is about our church family and the commonality we share in our service to God, to supporting each other in good and difficult times, and how we grow in that service throughout our lifetime. It is about maintaining the friendships with good friends who move away and yet you feel like you never missed a day when you see them maybe once a year … or every 5 or 10 years! Life is about forming loving bonds with other people and maintaining those bonds over a lifetime.
Matthew 22:36-40 – “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Of course, we must begin by loving God above all else. However, it is also essential to love others around us and to build lasting relationships with others. We need others in our lives to support us and sustain us when we have a setback and also to share the good times we experience. The relationships we develop with our family and friends are crucial to us living a Godly life, and sharing our lives and love with others as we should during our lifetime walk with Him.
Romans 12:9-10 – Love must be free of hypocrisy. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.
To build relationships, we need to have love in our heart. We need to honestly show that love and share that love with others. As Pastor Don told us in his sermon a few weeks ago, love is about building up others, those easy to love and also those not so easy to love. If you have Godly love in your heart, loving everyone becomes easier.
Colossians 3:14 – In addition to all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
1 Corinthians 16:14 – All that you do must be done in love.
Love is the glue that holds all things together in life. Without love, we are nothing and have nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 – Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
These four verses of scripture provide us our roadmap for a successful God-led life. It is not to be about us, it is to be about our approach to our service to Him and to all of those around us in our daily walk. Of course, it has to begin with those closest to us because if we are not right with those closest to us who we love the most, how can we say we love others?
1 Corinthians 13:13 – But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.