Sep. 7,1969 Paul Shiras and Colleen Byers became Mr. and Mrs. Paul Shiras
I can hardly believe it. Colleen and I have been married forty years! And my two wonderful children and my extra sweet daughter-in-law helped make it memorable by allowing us to kick back and do nothing. While there was no gift giving, the best gift was thier showing how much they cared and loved us.
We wanted no gifts because we know that they each have to keep a tight reign in the finances and we want for nothing. The only thing we wanted was to enjoy their company and to share in family time. But the real grace is in how they treated us. We cooked no meals, washed no dishes and watched old movies and played games. And, as in every time they come together, we worshiped together.
Our lives are blessed because as parents, we know that all our children, love the Lord in whatever they do. We are blessed with a cute grandson and even though he is on the verge of the ‘terrible twos”, he is still a sweet little boy who laughs more than he cries and really tries to be a good little boy.
The sermon lesson this week was on “Succeeding in Your Life Mission.” I would like to think that as parents, we did succeed and because of the way our children express honest and gracious love toward us, it is easy to praise God for the blessings of being a parent. Sometimes the mission of God may be as simple as that; teach your children in the way of the Lord.
What is next? Well, how about continuing in the path of Righteousness so that my grandson (and soon his sibling) will know that God is Good even in the hard times. To support and encourage my daughter-in-law as she raises these sweet gifts of God. To continue in the search of a perfected life through Christ. And to continue to love my wife as Christ loves me. And while loving Colleen is easy, loving her as much as Christ does is not all that easy. But I figure that I have at least a few more years to learn how to do it. It will be my lifelong ambition. To learn to truly love my wife, my soul-mate, my life partner, as Christ loves me.
Yes forty years may seem like a long time, but remember, God loved us even before He created the first atom. he loved us before He said, “Let there be light.” I guess if He can do that, I can at least be faithful to the love of my wife by living to love and to honer her. So to Colleen Shiras I say as did the song on our wedding day, ” I love you more each day, I love you more than I can say.”