“What’s that thing?,” my hubby asked, with a nod toward the kitchen table.

I’ll have to admit that my thrift store globe looked kinda strange with a fresh coat of chalkboard paint. Like one of those rubber kickballs we had in elementary school, only black.

“I’m working on a Valentine’s Day project,” I replied.

“You’re something else,” he said while making his exit with a shake of his head.

What is “something else?” Do I take that in a good way or in a bad way? A criticism or a compliment? A comment like that could have, at one time, sparked any variety of response from me!

Marriage, even good marriages, can be so hard.

Maybe you, like me, have experienced either internal or external stressors that build to the point of making you feel like you’re going to break and you end up taking it out on the one who knows and loves you best. There may be words, tears, stoney looks, and silence. Put two strong willed people together and there can be a huge impasse.

Over the course of our marriage we’ve been through many ups and downs, and since we’ve come out much stronger, we love sharing our experience, strength, and hope with others. When you put yourself in a position of teaching others though, they tend to look up to you and see only the success. What they may not see is the hard work, sacrifice, late nights, tears, adversity, doubts, disappointments, courage, determination, risk, failure, persistence, change, struggles, and prayer . . . LOTS and LOTS of prayer . . .

...and the work continues . . . because the marriage relationship is never static. Click To Tweet

When I was thinking about what to write on this Valentine’s Day globe I thought of all kinds of romantic verses I might use. Then I remembered John 3:16 in the Bible, which represents to me, God’s ultimate Valentine to us, Jesus.

When we - my husband and I - were mired in our stubborn, ugly, selfish ways, Jesus is the One who came to lift us from our life of bondage and set us free to live life to the fullest in Him.

Sometimes even now, when pressures build, it takes deliberately recalling just how deeply stuck-in-the-muck we were and reflecting on God’s amazing grace toward us, to extend grace toward one another.

Remembering renews our faith in God’s power to restore and gives us much needed strength to move through the mires of this complicated life.

Along this path there will come those things that hurt us, but in order to remain in right relationship with God and each other we make the choice to forgive. That releases God to work in our hearts to heal the hurts and will ultimately grow our love even stronger.

Sometimes walking through the hard times in marriage is a fairly simple stroll, side-by-side, spurred on by belief in the commitment we’ve made to one another. Sometimes the walk is more difficult, two people clinging tightly to one another as they sludge on through together. Sometimes it is one pulling the other with all his or her might to bring them both through to firm ground on the other side.

We are lucky (though I know it’s more than luck), that it isn’t just the two of us, but that we also have God on our side.

“A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” Eccl. 4:12 NLT

That’s the reason this Valentine’s Day post is for my two Valentines, my husband and God, because we wouldn’t be a WE without Him.

Moving on to another conversation a few days later:

Mr. OTN: Did you see that I tried to call you earlier?

Me: Yes, I’m sorry I missed your call. What did you need?

Mr. OTN: I was on my way to work and I was simply overcome by how much I love you. It brought tears to my eyes and I wanted to tell you.

Amazing love, amazing grace, amazing work of the Lord in our lives.

Click on the link to download this Free Printable: ForGodSoLoved

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY DEAR FRIENDS AND GOD’S RICHEST BLESSINGS TO YOU,

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