Today is my 24th Wedding anniversary. My wife just posted on Facebook that “24
years ago I married my best friend”. We were
talking yesterday and pondering our upbringings and she mentioned that growing
up she did not have many family members that had divorced. I, on the other hand, did not have many
family members that were not divorced. My grandparents on both sides of my family divorced
back when divorce was extremely rare. I am the youngest of 5 children, my own
parents divorced when I was 5 years old and all but one of my siblings has
been divorced and some of them multiple times.
The past
shapes our future but it doesn’t have to control it…
Over the years
I have thought a lot about this day, but I didn’t think it would hit me like it
is. You see my parents divorced after 23
years… and today I have outlived that legacy of divorce.
Tragedy and
hardship shape us there is no getting around it. All of us in some way or another have been
marred by others sin. Often those who should protect us are the very ones
inflicting the hurt and pain. You know
the saying; “Hurt people hurt people” and there is no getting around the truth
of that, but it does not have to be that way.
Yes, after 23 years my parents divorced and my childhood was shaped to a
large degree by the bitterness and pain of that divorce. But 2000 years ago a Man-God
came to earth lived, died, and was resurrected and because of Him I can respond
differently to the pain. Most of you
think that Jesus came to take away your fun, but Jesus didn’t come to take away
your fun. He came to take away your pain…
Let me say that again… Jesus came to take away your pain… Won’t you let him do
that!? Don’t hold onto the pain any longer. I've seen the results of that; I've lived the
results of that.
After 24
years I am more in love with my wife now than the day we married. I love her more than life itself, and I am
very thankful for all God has given me. I
know that I will continue to be shaped by my past but because of Jesus my past doesn’t
have to control my future
