How the Heart of a Marriage Survives a Near Fatal Heart Surgery

In the following guest post by Debbie Latour, you will hear how a married couple faced a dangerous heart surgery and came out stronger in love, life, and faith.

When you’re divorced, middle aged, and are given the gift of happily-ever-after with a second marriage, your optimism for the future is renewed. The birds sing again, the stars twinkle brighter, and the dark cloud of a failed marriage gives way to a clear, bright sky.
As we age, certain aches and pains are expected. However, you do not anticipate that less than a month in to a new marriage, you’d hear that your husband has an aneurysmal ascending aorta. His cardiologist sent us home with the recommendation that its growth be monitored and checked in a year.
For the next year, I watched this incredible gift from God, knowing he had a ticking time bomb in his chest, praying that this was not the day it ruptured and my happily-ever-after came to a screeching halt. I lived that year in absolute fear.

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Numbers 5 – The “I” Beams of a Strong Life

If you were trying to build a team (a sports team, a business team, a class, or even a family,) what would you most want to emphasize and engrain in them? For some it would be loyalty. For others it would be unity. Some would focus on service, while others would focus on success.
When God is trying to build a nation, He emphasizes two things: inspiration and integrity. These are the two supporting “I” beams for God’s people…and for any people.
Inspiration is living life under the influence of God’s Spirit and direction. Integrity is living a life of influence by demonstrating honesty, respect, justice, and concern for others.
Both inspiration and integrity are important, because inspiration is the fuel for integrity and integrity is the demonstration of our inspiration.
Numbers chapter 5 deals with the need for integrity in the areas of physical well being, social well being, and relational well being…particularly in the realm of marriage. When integrity slips in these areas, a group or a nation stands in peril. How timely this is for us today!
Why wold God emphasize these areas of inspiration and integrity? Because a failure in integrity is an act of unfaithfulness to God (Num. 5:6), and thus a breach of inspiration. The two supporting “I” beams of inspiration and integrity stand or fall together.
How are the “I” beams of your life? What would God have you do to strengthen both your inspiration and integrity?

 

Bret Legg is the Teaching and Counseling Pastor at Warren Baptist Church in Augusta, GA.