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On Faith
Murray Hohns
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Valentines should elevate each other
Let me tell you a valentine story, one that has a sad ending, and then I will use that ending to help you write your own valentine story with a happy ending.
My story spins around two folks in their 40s. He was a schoolteacher, and she was an employee of the state in a position that had nothing to do with education. They had become Christians, met at church, fallen in love and married. They had no children.
They were so in love with God and with each other. They sat in the front row of the church every Sunday. You could imagine little red valentine hearts delightfully fluttering about each of them. They were an ideal couple until the day her long-sought promotion came down.
She was thrilled, she had worked toward this for years and couldn't wait to start, but the appointment meant moving to another island, and her husband would not consent to this.
It was simple to his thinking. The Bible said a man is the head of his wife and that she was to be subject to her husband. They would not move, and she would be blessed through her submission far more than by taking the promotion.
I pointed out that the same Bible that made him the head of his wife also had qualifications for that role which required giving himself up for his wife. If he would die to his desires to give life to hers, then God would bless him for his sacrifice far beyond the costs of the move.
In the end, the husband prevailed. It cost him his valentine, who moved to the neighbor island. And all those delightful little red hearts that used to flutter about these two fell to the ground and shriveled away.
The Bible says that a man is to graciously give up his life for the woman in his life, and the woman, who knows that her husband prefers her wants to his, will follow that husband wherever he goes.
The key to having all those little red hearts fluttering near you and the love of your life is to remember that we are performance enhancers and that we are to bring out and encourage the best in those we love.
Murray Hohns is an associate pastor with New Hope Christian Fellowship.