Dear God,
Please make of our relationship a great and holy adventure.
May our joining be a sacred space.
May the two of us find rest here, a haven for our souls.
Remove from us any temptation to judge one another or to direct one another.
We surrender to You our conflicts and our burdens.
We know You are our Answer and our rock.
Help us to not forget.
Bring us together in heart and mind as well as body.
Remove from us the temptation to criticize or be cruel.
May we not be tempted by fantasies and projections, but guide us in the ways of holiness.
Save us from darkness.
May this relationship be a burst of light.
May it be a fount of love and wisdom for us to refresh our souls as we drink deeply through the years.
May this bond be a channel for Your love and healing, a vehicle of Your grace and power in the world.
As lessons come and challenges grow, let us not be tempted to forsake each other.
Let us always remember that in each other we have the sacred one, a child of God, in whose arms we are repaired.
May we remain young in this relationship.
May we grow wise in this covenant.
Bring us what You desire for us, and refine by your wisdom and Grace.
Thank you, dear God, You who are the cement between us, the love the binds us, and the grace that sustains us.
Thank You for this love, this faith, this hope, this LIFE.
Amen.
For consideration — the words of William Shakespeare, the words of the apostle Paul, and the words of Frank Sinatra — each attempting to define, from their perspective, the indefinable; to speak, in their words, the unspeakable language of the heart; to verbalize, in a moment in time, the universal — love — that which is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow; that which is the same to all people in all places at all times; that which God personified in His Son and the Son personifies about the Father:
Sonnet #116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! It is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13
Love is patient; love is kind.
It does not envy; it does not boast; it is not proud.
It is not rude; it is not self-seeking; it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails….
And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
“Come Rain or Come Shine”
I’m gonna love you like nobody’s loved you
Come rain or come shine.
High as a mountain and deep as a river,
Come rain or come shine.
I guess when you met me
It was just one of those things,
But don’t you ever bet me
‘Cause I’m gonna be true if you let me.
You’re gonna love me like nobody’s loved me
Come rain or come shine.
Happy together, unhappy together,
and won’t that be fine.
Days may be cloudy or sunny;
We’re in or we’re out of the money;
But I’m with you always;
I’m with you rain or shine.
“…it is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken;…”
“…love is patient, love is kind, it is not easily angered, it always protects, love never fails…”
“…but I’m with you always; I’m with you rain or shine.”
Remind you of anyone?
God, maybe?
How ’bout Jesus?
I think so, too.
Pretty cool!