10 Best Decisions of our Married Life... #10 Remain Committed in Adversity

Recently I began to share something I composed some years ago to be part of a document for a niece as she got married in June 2004.  That document was created as a compilation of entries under the title:  

THE TEN BEST... or 

The Wisdom of the most important women in your life.  

Each woman who submitted an entry chose her own subject matter.  I promised to post my entry on this blog.  This is the Tenth of our top decisions in the list of:

The Top Ten Decisions Guiding Our Married Life

By Uncle John and Aunt Linda Worden

10.  We will remain committed to God even in adversity.

I Peter 1: 5b-7 THE MESSAGE The day is coming when you’ll have it all - life healed and whole.  I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime.  Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine.

Philippians 1:29 THE MESSAGE There’s far more to this life than trusting in Christ.  There’s also suffering for him.   And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting.

Life is a combination of good times and bad times.  When there are difficulties, some people chose to blame God for their problems and turn away from following him.  We have had some times of adversity.  We have chosen to continue trusting God’s leadership in our lives even through the pain and disappointment.  Doing this has strengthened both our individual and our joint faith relationships.  Besides our personal faith, we have been supported and sustained by family and friends who have given us much encouragement.  Some hardships have happy endings but some don’t.  We’ve had a great place to work and serve following the congregation’s decision for John not to continue pastoring the church in Delafield.  And we trust God’s leadership but still pray for healing of Uncle John’s left eye though it remains legally blinded due to retina trouble.  But suffering is not grounds for desertion of the path on which the savior leads us.  We have absolutely no regrets for having followed this decision throughout our lives.  And the path of life is much easier when a couple shares the same goals and philosophies.
2012 Update:
Our resolve to follow this decision remains intact though we now add this year's diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease for John as another adverse situation we face. 

Another update shares an adversity for the couple for whom these "Decisions" were composed in 2004 as they began married life.  Their journey includes the diagnosis of Cystic Fibrosis for their first child, a daughter, who was born in January, 2011.  There is still no cure for CF but there are regularly improving medications and treatments for people with CF.  This young niece and her husband are courageously tackling the care of their daughter as they "remain committed to God even in adversity."  God has recently blessed them with a second daughter whose DNA is free of all possible CF complications.  I am inspired by this family's joyful acceptance of the path God has for their lives.  

With this post, I conclude the sharing of THE 10 BEST DECISIONS OF OUR MARRIED LIFE.  For 46 years we have been waking up each day continuing to be committed to God, each other, our family and the opportunities we have been given to work and live in this world.  We look forward to many more years of life together.