“Lifelong Commitments”

 

“Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” *

As summer ends and fall approaches, three big occasions lie ahead.  One of them is celebrating another birthday. The older I get, the more I appreciate each birthday!

Every fall, I also commemorate becoming a Christian; and in November, Al and I  celebrate our wedding anniversary.  My “spiritual” birthday and our wedding anniversary share this in common: both have to do with lifelong commitments.

 During my senior year in high school, I began having the uncomfortable feeling that there just didn’t seem to be anything fulfilling or any purpose in my life. The summer after graduation I picked up a Bible and begin reading a little here and there. It wasn’t long though before I put it down, busy working full-time as a lifeguard at a city pool.

The other lifeguards were older than I and were a fast-living, hard-playing group of young adults. Occasionally, I had to watch the entire pool, feeling a heavy weight of responsibility because one of my fellow lifeguards was sneaking drinks on the side or not paying attention to what was going on in the water. My big worry was that someone might drown due to our negligence, when the pool was open to the public for swimming.

One thing that resulted from my summer job, besides saving money for college, was the decision not to get involved with drinking alcohol, not even a little sip. Watching the head life- guard dive head first into a trash can throwing up at one party convinced me. Not so cool after all! Despite pressures from peers as I grew older, this was a major decision.

When the time to accept Christ came a short time later, I knew in my heart that it was the right thing to do. Something major was missing in my life, and so I turned to God for help.

Christian friends began to meet with me, teaching me how to study the Bible and encouraging me. When I began reading the Bible again, it was in earnest, with a deep desire to grow in my relationship with the Lord. Not that I always understood everything in the scriptures or gained a new revelation every time I read it.

The practice of daily Bible reading was put to the test during my last two years of college  It seemed more like a textbook than it had previously and tedious to read rather than relevant and exciting.

Once during that time, the thought came to me that maybe I had been tricked into believing something that wasn’t true, that maybe it was all a lie. That thought didn’t hold up to the realization that only something real and true could be the source of the joy, fulfillment, love and hope welling up in my heart.

And transformation began to happen in my life. I wasn’t the same person as the young coed starting out at junior college. The anchor of my commitment to the Lord was and still is, time spent reading the Bible and in prayer every morning. With His help, the decision to live for Him has remained strong.

When Al and I began dating, he said, “I think this is the beginning of a long-lasting relationship!” It turned out to be a prophetic statement!

On our wedding day, we pledged “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do us part.” Of course, in the beginning neither bride nor groom imagined what “this day forward” would entail.

The stresses and pressures of life have tested us through forty years of marriage and will most likely become even more difficult in the aging process. Being committed to each other and having Christ in the center of our relationship help us face the future with courage and hope.

“Teach me your way O Lord.” David’s desire was for God to teach him the way to live,  to enable him to walk in the truth and to give him an undivided heart…a heart filled with a deep and abiding love for God. May that be my prayer and yours as well.

            Please help us keep our lifelong commitments, dear Lord. In Jesus’ name,  Amen.

 

*Psalm 86:11 (“A prayer of David’’) NIV