{"id":1084,"date":"2024-02-14T11:42:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T17:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/?p=1084"},"modified":"2024-06-19T06:08:21","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T11:08:21","slug":"enduring-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/enduring-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Enduring Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valentine\u2019s Day 2024 is my first Valentine\u2019s Day in 44 years without my husband. Please do not feel sorry for me. I\u2019ve received unexpected cards, chocolates, and other expressions of love. And I have a dinner date with the cutest, sweetest 6-year-old little man, who looks a lot like his Bop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first date was January 18, 1980. Less than a month later, on Valentine\u2019s Day, Jim took me to The Peddler for dinner. I wore a black velvet dress; he had a suit, white shirt, and red tie. We waited for over an hour for a table, as Valentine\u2019s Day was a \u201cno reservations\u201d night. Waiting didn\u2019t matter to us. We were enthralled by the atmosphere of the restaurant and each other.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Jim
Jim and Candy engagement photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After a delicious meal, we walked to the car. Jim kissed me and said, \u201cI love you.\u201d I remember well the herd of butterflies that alighted inside me. They continued to flutter in the weeks and months to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, we again had a special dinner at The Peddler. This time, after dinner, Jim reached in his jacket pocket. I stopped him, and said, \u201cI want this to happen at home,\u201d so we went to 110 Greenbriar Road, where we sat on the sunroom love seat. Jim asked me to marry him and presented me with my engagement ring. After that, things moved fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our wedding day was November 8, 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could tell you we had a fairy tale marriage, but that wouldn\u2019t be true. We experienced hurdles\u2014medical emergencies, infertility, misunderstandings, differences of opinion, steely silences, but the overarching element in our marriage was love, and along with love, forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 Corinthians 13 is often referred to as the \u201clove chapter.\u201d This chapter lists the qualities of a love that is true, sincere, kind, patient, and unselfish. Most of us rarely live up to the ideals set forth in 1 Corinthians 13, but those standards provide us with a goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faith<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Faith was the backbone of our marriage. Faith remains sturdy when life\u2019s storms rage. Without the constant reminder of God\u2019s unfailing love, grace, and forgiveness, the difficulties of life, and love, would be impossible to navigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hope is the quality that ignites forward motion. With hope, we move on, even when circumstances threaten to freeze us in grief or discouragement. The hope of heaven, the hope of seeing Jim again, allows me to move ahead in this life without him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1 Peter 4:8 NIV reminds us to \u201clove each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.\u201d I don\u2019t think this is an admonition to ignore hurts, or to bury them, but rather to let love smooth the way for forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does enduring love mean to you? One of the definitions of \u201cenduring\u201d is \u201cdurable,\u201d which means able to exist a long time without significant deterioration in quality or value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enduring, durable love is a love that lasts eternally, a love that death cannot dimmish or stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you loving deeply and forgiving rapidly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us\u201d<\/em> (Romans 5:8 AMPC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLove never comes to an end\u201d<\/em> (1 Corinthians 13:8 GW).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
\n
\"Candy
Candy and Jim Arrington<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Candy Arrington is a writer, blogger, speaker, and freelance editor. She often writes on tough topics with a focus on moving through, and beyond, difficult life circumstances. Candy has written hundreds of articles, stories, and devotionals published by numerous outlets including: Inspiration.org, Arisedaily.com, CBN.com, Healthgrades.com, Care.com, Focus on the Family, NextAvenue.org, CountryLiving.com, <\/em>and Writer\u2019s Digest.<\/em> Candy\u2019s books include Life on Pause: Learning to Wait Well <\/em>(Bold Vision Books), When Your Aging Parent Needs Care <\/em>(Harvest House), and AFTERSHOCK: Help, Hope, and Healing in the Wake of Suicide <\/em>(B&H Publishing Group).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To receive Candy\u2019s blog, Forward Motion, <\/em>via email, go to https:\/\/candyarrington.com\/blog\/<\/a> and scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valentine\u2019s Day 2024 is my first Valentine\u2019s Day in 44 years without my husband. Please do not feel sorry for me. I\u2019ve received unexpected cards, chocolates, and other expressions of love. And I have a dinner date with the cutest, sweetest 6-year-old little man, who looks a lot like his Bop. Our first date was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[217,202,10,14],"tags":[61,42,31],"class_list":["post-1084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grief","category-holidays","category-marriage","category-transitions","tag-best-life","tag-grief","tag-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1084"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1087,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions\/1087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}