Today’s message is from Bob, who was a prodigal who returned home and was remarried to me for an additional 23 years before the Lord took him home to Heaven. Bob wrote 19 books from the prodigal’s perspective for more than two decades after our divorce and remarriage. – Charlyne
My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. Proverbs 4:20-22
“Do you want to ride down to the Amtrak station in Fort Lauderdale with one of my guys?” our oldest son inquired. Tim knows how much I enjoy trains, and his funeral transport company had been called to place a casket on the morning train to New York.
My first trip to that train station, for the same reason, was on a Saturday in 1962. While in high school, I worked part-time for our local funeral director. Trips to meet what was then known as the Seaboard Coast Line trains were common. Back then, just about the only way to send a casket out of South Florida was by rail.
Today, many flights leaving South Florida carry a casket, but passengers do not notice. That sacred cargo is loaded before passengers board. Loading is accomplished by a forklift and conveyor. There is usually no opposite side of train stations, and the unloading from the funeral coach, waiting for the train, and subsequent loading into a baggage car is done within a few hundred feet of passengers.
More than once as a teenager, I was told by my employer, “Remember, everyone’s watching.” He was a hard taskmaster with one way to do things: the right way. Not until years later, after I had become a funeral director, did I appreciate what he had imparted into me.
That Friday morning, as the shiny black Cadillac hearse backed into the unloading area at the train station, people began to look. I turned toward the “youngster” who was driving and said, “Remember, people are watching.”
Today, I want to turn to you and say, “Remember, people are watching.” My prayer is that while you walk through restoration, your faith is strengthening. I pray that every day you are becoming more like Jesus in your marriage.
Why did you stand for marriage restoration? If you are the prodigal who came back home, why did you go home? When you become more like Jesus, you develop unconditional love. That unconditional love will help you endure the trials that come as you walk through restoration.
People who love you are watching. They want to see how this bold stand for marriage restoration turns out. We serve a God who never goes back on His Word. Your standard for marriage must be guided by the Bible and what God has called you to do. May you never be guilty of lowering the through compromise and disappointing those who are watching you.
Charlyne and I know of people who are standing for their marriage because some restored couple has shared the good news of what God did in their own troubled marriage.
You may never know how many people you are impacting through your journey through restoration. May God be honored because of your marriage.
“But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Joshua 22:5
God bless,
