You reap what you grow

On love

Anyone can sow quick love.

It's easy.

But not everyone will reap well.

Because not everyone is willing for the long haul.

To cherish love all the way from the first flush of young passion. Then on out into deep waters and the fullness of two lives spent together. To become one. Unselfish.

The truth is we reap what we sow.

And when it comes to love, I've likely been the worst.

Think,

I missed our wedding anniversary two years on the trot.

Why?

I just forgot.

When younger I dragged my wife behind me wherever I went.

(Including through the length and breadth of an Orthodox Muslim country. Terrifying for her because she is Jewish. She trusted GOD to return us safely every minute... especially as we were helping smuggle Gospels into dangerous regions etc).

I never let her have a say.

I spoke over her.

Everything was about me...

Me. Me. Me.

Total and utter selfishness for so long.

Yet here we are decades later.

It’s all God’s grace.

In love. In peace. In laughter.

Thing is though...

My wife is a gardener.

She never rushes.

She sows. And she sows in faith. For the future harvest. For love. In hope. She knows her harvest always comes. And she did that with me.

And when it all became too much for her… When she threw up her hands despairing of my domineering arrogance what did she do?

She prayed this prayer...

"LORD Jesus, I hand Dave over to you. You sort him out."

And she kept trusting Him to do just that... meanwhile she kept on watering, tending, weeding… patiently growing the garden of our love and marriage.

Until one day...

Finally I woke up.

And I saw the damage I'd done.

The fool I'd been for so many years...

I cried like a baby... for days.

And went into mourning.

Begging forgiveness,

I walked very gently after that.

My wife reaped what she grew. She always knew Jesus would answer her…

With a ‘new’ husband,

Grown up out of the dried up twig of her foolish old one.

Here’s to ‘old love’ that’s sweeter than the new!

Thanks darling.

Love Dave.

PS Patience wins the day.

Let's be...

"Imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

Hebrews 6:12 ESV

BTW.

Another time, despite 17 years of prayer the LORD didn’t answer us.

Until…

God’s power mysteriously healed my wife in the middle of the night… after all those years and after we prayed the simplest two minute prayer ever.

Next morning she awoke an entirely different woman.

So never, ever give up.

Grow your answers. Reap by faith.

God is working on us all.