I was just thinking back when I first met my Mama Bear back in 1988 in a club in Tarpon, I was “working” and she was out to have a good time with her friend Jackie.
Twenty-some years later we’re still together strong as ever. We just celebrated our 23rd anniversary on Monday with a quaint meal at Chili’s. We don’t get into all that lavish over the top dinners, it just hasn’t been who we are.
We are romantics but we celebrate us without the assistance of a $200 dinner bill. Call me cheap if you think but she calls me Papa Bear and ask her if she thinks she’s the luckiest woman in the world when you see her.
Look at the posts on Facebook from then and you will see we are as happy as teenagers in puppy love.
I laugh sometimes when I hear preachers talking about looking for love in all the wrong places, not allowing kids to play video games or watch TV, etc., etc. And I look at how my six kids turned out.
We have to stop stereotyping and steering the sheep that are under the sound of our voice into our own idea of utopia and get back to just teaching basic life skills that involve nothing more than what Jesus taught: love kindness, compassion, empathy.
You don’t wind up with egg on your face and maybe, just maybe you will be spending your free time enjoying your spouse as much as we do each other.
Our kids just don’t realize how many molds, myths, and barriers we broke by making it this far.
I filed for divorce within the first year of our marriage for not serious enough reasons. It was a series by Dr. Fred Price on Having the God Kind of Faith that made me realize that I had to give up to 100 percent and her 0 percent before I said I quit.
Marriage was NEVER and is NEVER and will NEVER be a 50/50 deal. It’s a 100 percent deal. Sometimes one will give more than the other and sometimes one won’t be giving anything, BUT, if you trust the Word and believe this is the one He gave you, fight.
I don’t mean fight with each other but fight your ego, selfishness, pride, Naaman syndrome (2 Kings 5:11) and defeat Satan and his attempt to break apart what God has put together. Notice I said what God has put together, not man. Nuff said on that.
Had no idea the Lord was leading me down this path but I always wait on the Lord to give me what the saints of St. Pete need and I also learn as I type and proofread then read again when it comes out on Thursdays.
If she burns the biscuits or makes those famous Ellie Mae Clampett brick biscuits, you eat what you can and get her your mama’s recipe or Google Betty Crocker or Pillsbury. If he continues to be a knucklehead and continues to leave the seat up, glue it down. Won’t take out the trash? Let it run over all over the floor he paid all that money to have installed.
This ain’t rocket science and Dr. Phil ain’t got nothing on me when it comes to the black marriage and the black family. I don’t just have opinion, I got results, evidence. Trust me; I always give all the praise, glory and honor to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and will NEVER attempt to take more than I deserve, but I did have to be that willing vessel.
We have to start repairing the black relationships in order that our neighborhoods and communities can begin to rebuild their foundations for a better world.
It has to start with the family, the spiritual, not religious family. You can’t be a Sunday only family, or leader for that matter, and think that you will be equipped to handle all that Satan will throw at you. You are not superhuman and Satan will find you out and discover your Achilles heel and exploit it all over for everyone to see and in most cases there will be no recovery.
God is a forgiving God and His forgiveness is eternal and infinite and real. When God forgives, He throws it into the sea of “it never happened never to be mentioned again.” People will forgive as long as you never mention it again or there is something to gain from it, like some get back to tear you down when they see you are getting back on track without them.
The power of prayer can move mountains that you may have thought were permanent fixtures that could never or would never be moved. Prayer does things that far and away are beyond the scope of the human mind. Understand this one thing though:
John 9:31 (KJV)
31 Now we know that God heareth NOT sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, AND DOETH HIS WILL, him he heareth.
He doesn’t require you to be a good person that does good things every once in a while. His commandment is that we be Holy for He is Holy; wholly acceptable to Him; Holiness without which NO man will see Him.
Till next week,
God Bless and Keep Us All.
Rev. Dr. Robert L. Harrison, PhD – pastorrobharrison@gmail.com, @drrobharrison
The Apostolic Open Door Church of God & True Holiness – 2800 41st Ave. N, St. Pete
Chaplain – Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Pinellas
Parent Support for Education Council Board Member | Dept. Juvenile Justice Chaplain for Circuit 6
