"the greatest of these is Love"

On Sunday, we began “celebrating relationships” and over the last few days I have found myself praising God for his unlimited gifts to me and blessings he has placed on my life. But what has been going through my head the most this week, is his gift of love…the desire to love and be loved. Where would our lives be without love?

From an early age, the concept of love has been difficult for me to understand. And it has really been just in my adult years that I have begun to understand at a deeper level what it means to love and to be loved. You see, probably like some or even many of you, I come from a broken home. But, my version of the broken home is probably a bit different because it consisted of a caring father and an absent mother. For eighteen years it was a home where there was no love between husband and wife; only tempers, angst, arguing, mistrust and infidelities. No family dinners, no kind words, no loving touches, no building-up, only tearing down.

When it comes to understanding how to love our husbands and wives, those of us who are products of broken homes and marriages are often left to find our own way. But, every coin has two sides and I have come to realize that the lessons which teach us what not to do are just as important and valuable as the lessons that teach us what to do. So, my journey into adulthood began with a great deal of understanding of what I didn’t want to be as a husband and the qualities I wanted to avoid in a wife and mother of my children. I prayed…I prayed everyday that God would send me an angel, someone who would make me want to be the man that I always knew I could be. Someone I could love and someone that could love me. I trusted in God.

Thirteen years ago, I met the woman that God had selected for me…he had answered my prayers. And in some way that only God understands, I loved Anne far before I ever met her. In our years together, we have found that marriages are tough and require work, everyday; don’t believe anyone that tells you differently. But through our mutual relationship with God, he continues to bless and strengthen our marriage with a deeper understanding of what it means to love and be loved.

Yes, I am grateful to God for all of his blessings, but as scripture tells us…”the greatest of these is love.”

Brad