RESPECT J.C.

25 Years and Still Counting

respectjc | March 28, 2009 17:19

This past Tuesday, March 24th, was our 25th Wedding Anniversary. WOW!! What a glorious ride that it has been over the past 25 years. Through all of the things that we have went through, with my health and all the problems, I praise God that we are still together and celebrating another year.

I had a special day planned for Christine that she did not even know about. I had worked it out with her boss and best friend Vickie that Christine be off on that Tuesday, because I had already taken off. But Vickie had her on the schedule as if she was working to make it look good. I did not even tell her I was off. I did not set the alarm for Tuesday morning, and around 4:30, Christine got up and went to the bathroom and then came back and laid in bed, thinking the alarm was going to go off at 5:15 a.m.. She fell back asleep, as well as I did, and at 7:30 a.m., she woke up and saw daylight and freaked. She hollered at me and ask me if I had set the alarm, and I told her no, that I wasn't going to work today. She said what! I told her I wasn't going to work today, and that neither was she. This went on for about 15 minutes, when she told me she had to go, because she was on the schedule, and I told her it was a fake schedule. Happy Anniversary, Christine, you and I are spending the day together. I told her she had to be ready to leave by 8:15 a.m.. She couldn't believe it.

Our first journey of the day, took us to a new restaurant that some friends had opened up, called the Flat Iron Skillet, for a big country breakfast.After breakfast, came what the Holy Spirit had laid on my heart. I had worked it out with some family friends down home, to have the little Baptist Church in Claysville, Alabama opened up for us. This was the church where I grew up, and where I married Christine, and then two years later, met Jesus. I took a back way to the church when we got down there, and we went through the back door, and proceeded to the sanctuary, where on the communion table, they had prepared for me juice and crackers. Of course Christine lost it, and so did I. We stood before the Lord, where we had stood 25 years earlier, and I served her and I commune, and then just prayed whatever the Holy Spirit laid on my heart, but most of all, asked for forgiveness for things that I had not for the past 25 years. We renewed our covenant with each other and with God, to get ready to start the next 25. It was so cool, and I give God the praise and Glory!!!

We ran to my mom and dads' just down the road to drop in on them to see how there were doing. My mom and dad didn't even know what was happening. We had a pleasant visit, and then we rode to Lake Guntersville State Park where we had spent some of our honeymoon and walked around it and toured the facility. They had just renovated the whole place. It was awesome.

We then proceeded to do some more riding around to places and then went shopping in Scottsboro at Unclaimed Baggage, and then took the long way home through the back side of Monteagle Mountain. This gave our daughters and our best friends time to join us at O'Charley's for supper. Christine didn't even know this.

I say all of this, just to say that when and if you get the chance, and you don't even have to go back to where you were married, or even serve commune or have it served to you, but grab a hold of the one you love. Stand before God, ask for forgiveness and renew your covenant with your spouse, and with God daily. What an awesome feeling we had that day as we held each other and cried in the presence of God. Because you know, God stands and cries and holds us, even when we turn our back on him, He holds on to us, just waiting for us to come back to Him. I pray that not only we will do this as individuals, but that we as a nation will embrace God once again. So many people are losing that special embrace that God has, and doesn't even know what it feels to be held by God. They have "forsaken their first love". Lord, forgive us. Lord, we humble ourselves before You once again. Lord, life us up, and let us soar once again on the wings of eagles.Let us run once again, and not grow weary. Because Lord, YOU ARE OUR GOD! YOU ARE OUR FATHER!! Hold tight to us, as we make our way back to You. In Jesus Name, Amen

Be blessed--In His Grip and Loving It

Jeff