harmony – KARLA LEES

Today is my 22nd wedding anniversary.

I have now been married for just under half my life 🙂

I have learned two key lessons, mostly the hard way, over the two + decades we have been a couple. They are key because without them, the song of our marriage quickly turns into dischord, and things remain off kilter until they are added back into the mix.

It doesn’t take two to make a marriage work.

It takes God, & community.

The two keys to making sure you have all the resources & support you might need, because you will need them.

1. God:

When God is interwoven into your marriage, you become bound together beyond the physical, mental & emotional ties we can make on earth. You become one in spirit. This was the ultimate design God had for us in marriage, to be united together with Him as He will fully be united with His bride one day soon. He becomes the strength of your bond, beyond your earthly union.

2. Community:

When you have a community around you to support you, you have help to work through the trials, storms & unexpecteds life can throw at you. You have care for when you are wounded, direction when you can’t see God through the storm, and combined wisdom & gifts beyond your own, especially if your support network are believers.

On your own, you can falter.

In community, you have support when the hard times hit. You know you are not alone.

With God, you have His eternal resources within reach, and you can endure beyond whatever tries to pull your marriage apart. You have protection through the storms. Your spirit knows you are not alone, for He is intimately with you.

My hubby & I have come through many trials & storms, losses & joys.

We have learned community is vital for keeping us grounded, and connected with one another. We know we are cared for.

But more importantly, we have learned God is essential for keeping us loving one another, and strengthening our bond. We know we are loved, and can express that love to one another throughout our lifetime together.

Community supports.

God strengthens.

The cord of three strands in the physical realm needs community to flourish.

The cord of three strands in the spiritual realm requires God to grow, deepen and mature into the reflected image of Jesus & His bride.

We can’t have one without the other.

For hubby & i are one, together one strand in the tapestry He is weaving in our lives.

God & community make up the other two strands.

If you too are married, may He grant you and your spouse a deeper revelation of how He wants to be intimately interwoven into the very fabric of your marriage, and become all you need in order for you to stay together.

May you find the melody He desires for your marriage, as you allow Him to write your love song, and allow the community around you to harmonize where it is needed.

Like the anticipation of the arrival of spring, the Word has moving, stirring and growing deeper within me in a few areas as of late, but especially His desire for unity.

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! Psalm 133:1

God is blessed when we live in community. Even that very word includes both the requirements for healthy community: “come” into “unity.” When we unite, God releases a blessing upon us as we come together to seek Him in community, for He draws near.

Community isn’t always pretty, but it is His design for us. I have learned the hard way that sometimes we wound one another, hold back forgiveness or gossip…because we take our eyes off of the One who binds us together, and forget to love another as He has loved us. No holds barred, with no grievances between us:

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:13-14

When we show love to one another as Jesus did for us, while we listen for His leading, we find the differences between us start to mellow into the background, to fade behind His love as the melody uniting us together:

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as family, be compassionate and humble. 1 Peter 3:8

Living in harmony doesn’t mean we always agree, because we are all uniquely wired and gifted, but it means family is more importance than our differences. We work it out with his help, because He desires it:

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3

As a community, we honor God when we pull together as one. For the One who died for us all is our unifying factor, the commonality which is the basis for our community as a body of believers. When we all use our gifts for His glory, not our own, our unity becomes apparent to those around us. The community at large takes notice when His people live and work together in unity. When peace abounds instead of division and turmoil. Where we willingly submit to one another out of love, placing the needs of the body above our own. When we confess to one another our offences and flaws, and find forgiveness, true rest for our souls.

This world is screaming out self-satisfaction, for life to be all about ‘me.’ When we gather in unity to worship God, following His way and not our own, His peace can be sensed in our communities. Not only in each of us as individuals, but in our collective focus on Him. As our prayers arise to Him, asking for Him to make us one, He releases a fresh wind of His presence, and community.

May God continue to bind us together, into the One heart at the core of the body, His.

Tag: harmony

this chord of three strands

Bind us together