When Jim and I married, we had both lived a long time on this earth and a lot of history had been written in our lives before we came together as husband and wife. So, there was much to learn about each other!
As with most people when they fall in love and begin to realize they are moving toward a life-long commitment, we would sometimes talk into the night – hour upon hour – just trying to ‘get to know’ one another. The truth is, we are still learning!
After we had been married a while, I remember reading a story told by a man who had worked for Jim at PTL for ten years. He drove a bulldozer and helped to clear PTL land for development. He recounted that when he and Jim were clearing trees from some remote acres of PTL property to build campsites and bunkhouses, Jim discovered an elderly black couple living in a shack just off the edge of the property.
The man had only one arm and his wife was bedridden. They didn’t have running water. The man was cutting wood with a chain saw with his one hand, and they used that wood in a stove to cook their meals.
Without saying anything, Jim had a new trailer pulled in for them to live in. Then, he had the trailer hooked up to a septic tank and had a well drilled for them so that they would have running water.
Nothing told me more about Jim’s heart than that story.
Matthew 12:35, “A good man out of the good treasure of His heart brings forth good things.”
Some of us need to mine the treasures in the hearts of our loved ones more often. We need to dig deep and remember the good things that flow out of the hearts of the ones we love.
It’s all too easy to let life’s everyday pressures make us callous to the real heart of a person. Recall something good about your loved one today.
Phillipians 4:8: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
