Stir Up Your First Love

As the 50th Wedding Anniversary date (July 8th) of my Sweetheart and I nears, I seem to be "in a remembrance zone". Dear friends of mine, who are celebrating their 50th year, are doing so by rekindling the love they had 50 years ago by purposefully going on all kinds of romantic and fun adventures. They've cruised, traveled near and far, taken lots of date nights and every day they are celebrating those 50 years in special ways, all year long. I love that. That gives me pause for a moment. I think that's what we would be doing, too. I won't get to do that, but I sure can spend sweet time remembering the special times we had in our 44 years.

When we had little to afford us to travel, we made lots of memories camping out and fishing in lots of lakes. We had LOTS of date nights to a movie, a restaurant, a musical (we loved those – “The Music Man” was our favorite and our favorite song came from it “Til There Was You”). Then we travelled in a Winnibego across the U.S. when we were The Master's 4 Quartette. We had four conversion vans over the years and chalked up a lot of miles travelling across the U.S. and Canada (my Sweetheart's home). Both of us being Private Pilots, we travelled many miles in our Cessna 182 airplane. We travelled on commercial airplanes, making many trips to see our kids when they lived in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington. We travelled to many events and conferences, near and far away. We travelled many times to my Sweetheart's beloved Belize and Mexico where we regularly went to share God's love on missions trips. We travelled on a Gulfstream when our son took us on the ride of our life to New York City when his company became public. We were there when he rang the opening bell on Nasdaq. We enjoyed 15 cruises together, the last of which was our dream trip, 5 days in Rome and 12 days on a Meditteranean Cruise.

One of my fondest memories is the trip Ron won at an LPGA Golf Tournament. He putted a 50 foot hole in one stroke. A hole-in-one that awarded us with a trip, the next day, on a 747 with the LPGA women to Sweden for the Solheim Cup. Eight days and nights -- all expenses paid. We made the most of the moments when travelled by train to Denmark and the ferry and train to Berlin, Germany.

Not only did I enjoy "remembering" all those experiences for myself, but I wanted to share them with you to say: "DON'T let the wonders and wows of your todays past you by." Like us, you may not make it to your 50th year to celebrate the years. Make memories today. Make every day count for loving and sharing and rekindling that love that brought you together with your sweetheart in the first place. Get off the couch and go for a walk. Get up early to see the sun rise together. Holding hands, watch the sun set together. Light some candles. Stir up that FIRST LOVE that you shared. STOP and behold the beauty God gave you, before it's too late.

Then, spiritually, let's not move so speedily through life, that we fail to set aside the time needed to stop and behold the beauty of the Lord and to gaze upon the wonders that are found in Him alone. Let’s stir up that FIRST LOVE we encountered with Him.

Psalm 27:4 "One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, and BEHOLD THE BEAUTY of the LORD and to meditate in His temple."