Great article..... kleenex alert (for me anyway) - 03/28/01 05:38 AM
I got this in an email and thought I'd share it.<P><B>On the Verge of Leaving</B><P>Above Rubies <P>Once upon a time a marriage encountered great difficulties. The husband and wife both carried hurting wounds from their past and inflicted fresh wounds upon each other. Locked into their individual conscious and subconscious memories of the past, they perpetuated the hurts instead of easing them and sharing them. Like many strong men, the husband was unable to communicate his feelings and she, weak and full of self-pity, was at a loss to handle the new lacerations. <P>Both, desperately needing comfort from each other, blindly boxed the wrong foes and were knocked out! <BR>She quietly decided to leave. She had done all she knew to do. She had prayed, told God she was sorry, tried, prayed, and tried again, but knew that neither she nor her husband could go on. She knew that she needed help, that he needed help, but that he would go deeper into "hiding" if she left. "Is there nothing I can do?" she asked God in desperation as she was at the point of leaving. To her immense surprise, He answered, "Yes!" "It is the answer to every human relationship. It is this. Look at this man through My eyes and do for him what I have done for you. Die to your needs, your wants and serve him as though he was ME. Do as I say in MY word-serve your husband as unto the Lord." <P>In a flash of understanding she saw her husband through the Lord's eyes. This man was deeply hurt, inarticulate, unable to express his deepest feelings or to realize that his reactions to her arose out of terrible frustrations. She saw that as Christ looked at her with all her horrible ways, yet loved and accepted her, just so could she accept the love her husband, no matter what the cost to her. "Oh, Lord," she said, "Enable me to do this, for You and for him." A deep, sweet peace descended upon her heart and soul and Gods own strength flowed into her. <P>Just as quietly as she had prepared to leave, she prepared to stay. She prepared herself to stay in spirit and soul as well as body, a total person at her Lord's and her husband's command. This story has a happy ending.... The husband has no idea of what his Lord has restored to him because he has no idea of what he nearly lost! He is newly pleased by his wife's love and kindness and surprised at her tranquillity under all circumstances. Out of her acceptance of him as he is, he shows that he is a fine and good man. As his hurts heal, he no longer needs to hurt another. He is able to love and receive the love he longed for always. <P>And what about the wife? Whatever the husband has received, she has received a thousand times more. In that moment of seeing through God's eyes, not only her husband but herself as well, she died forever to any wrong ideas she had held as to her rights to have any rights. In the giving up she gained the whole world and lost her greatest impediment to her own happiness-her selfishness. <P>She now knows, with joyous clarity, that the message of the cross is the message to the whole world and the answer to every human problem. She knows that, far from failing, she has passed the only test that matters, the test of loving with God's love, the test of obedience to the One who knows all things. She has learnt that with her own frail, petty love she could never love her husband to the depths of what God asks of us. But that there is no higher degree to be attained in the physical, cultural or intellectual spheres than the one she has obtained in the Kingdom of God. <BR>She knows too, that as unlovingness on her part has been overcome with love on God's part, something unseen but blindingly bright beautifully has taken place in God's economy. She can confidently say, now, to others who are at odds with husbands, wives, parents, children, employers, employees, friends and neighbors-"There is a way, a sure way. It is the way of love, the love of the cross of Jesus Christ, which never fails." <P>She knows too, that those who cannot rule and reign in their homes in love, can never be chosen to rule and reign in God's heavenly kingdom. The only failure which has eternal consequences is the failure to love with God's love. <BR>