Dealing with Menopause
John 15:12,13 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. (NRSV)
Anyone who has ever been married knows that on their wedding day they made an unconditional promise to their bride (or husband, as the case may be) to stick with them through thick and thin, right to the end. Why is it then, that so many marriages fall apart?
A few years back, I was involved in a tutorial session at a Bible college where I was teaching, and we were dealing with the subject of pain and suffering in our own lives.
And one man shared with us, deep from the heart, the pain that he’d travelled through over the last few year as his wife had gone through the emotional ups and downs of menopause. Tears were rolling down his cheeks as he told us the pain that he’d suffered.
Now this man, in the world’s eyes, was no superstar. He didn’t look to be much on the outside. He wasn’t an eloquent speaker or writer or academic. But in this world of disposable relationships, of marriages that are thrown away like a crumpled, fast food wrapper, I have to tell you, this man was a hero.
Given all that he’d had to travel through, how easy would it have been for him to look after number one? How easy would it have been to walk out on his wife, as many men do at this stage of life? How easy …
John 15:12-14 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. (NRSV)
This man laid down his life for his wife. He counted his marriage vow – for better or for worse, in sickness and in health – to be greater than himself.
And that, men, is exactly what we’re called to do.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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Josephine
Thanks Bernie, it was empowering to hear about this man and how he stayed in his marriage despite his struggles. It’s ...
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Thanks Bernie, it was empowering to hear about this man and how he stayed in his marriage despite his struggles. It’s empowering because I also make a decision on a regular basis to sick with my husband. God helps me stay.
My children say that I go on about God too much, I don’t believe I do but I explained to my 19 year old son that God has done amazing things in my life and I want them, my children, to know that He is the answer. I fear I may be pushing them away from God so I’ll tone it down and just let them witness me praying, reading the Bible, lighting candles up in prayer, going to mass. This life is hard but God is good. Josephine