Laughter and Lessons from a 50-year Marriage!

Finding Grace and Following the Guide. Or. (God and Sex Part II.)
The bottom line is that when Deb and I got married, she was a virgin and I was not. One of the modern myths about sex is that it’s just physical and no big deal. I don’t believe this and that is certainly not my journey. The emotions have been all over the place in my adult life. At one point I can experience the true forgiveness and redemption of Jesus with an understanding of grace that people with less checkered lives just can’t understand. On the other hand, there are still residual times when I ache for my choices of sexual activity before marriage. I don’t blame the girl. I know it was my decision and it pains me. If there was anything that I could take back, it would be those pre-marital sexual actions that I took during the dark ages on my high school years and young adult life. But I can’t. (more…)

The Daily Decisions And Transformation.
I’m not a country western fan. In fact, I like to tell people that God created music and then Satan made an attempt at it which resulted in country-western. Really, there are so many different genres of music that I enjoy from classical to Christian hard rock. Head banger music is what our church admin assistant calls it. I’ve picked up a love for Irish, Scottish, and English folks music of late and sometimes old traditional Russian music will find its way to my Pandora stations. A seasoning amount of classic rock is threaded through my week as well. But I just can’t make the switch to country-western. Ok, maybe some John Denver once in a while. But that’s probably a bit more folk than western. No, country music and I just don’t do business with each other.
My wife however grew up on the country twang. Many of those songs bring fond memories to her and set her at ease. I don’t naturally like country, but she does. Thus the question of what do we listen to over the car radio. (more…)

Chick Fil A line, Corsets, and God’s Beauty. Or (God and Sex. Part I)
It had been a long day as Deb and I were dropping off our girls for youth group. We try to grab date nights whenever we can. When you’ve been married for just over 26 years even fast food has a romantic ring to it. So with a coupon that Deb was graced with from one of her students, we headed to Chick Fil A with the anticipation of not having to clean a kitchen and enjoy some time without teen drama. The problem was that the line was taking forever and the day was just getting longer.
I wanted to bolt, but Deb was much more patient. To encourage me she suggested a bet; which is something she hardly ever does. In her confidence, she offered a bet that if we were not through the line in 10 minutes she’d wear a corset that night.
What? A preacher talking about the intimate details in marriage? Well why not? Actually the Bible does speak about the subject in quite wonderful ways. The unfortunate deal is that our present Western culture has allowed Hollywood to highjack the subject. Yes, God really did create sex and preachers really do engage in it. So today and later in a second installment I’ll share 5 quick points on the subject that just might help us restore a truly Kingdom mind set about sex. (more…)
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