Exodus 20:12  “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”

Today is the 80^th anniversary of my parents’ wedding day.  Oscar Schmidt and Louise Diamond were married just before the start of her senior year in high school.  She was 17 years old.  My father promised her father that she would graduate from high school, which she did.  They were married 63 years when my father went to be with Jesus. Today Oscar would be 102 and Louise would be 97.

They weren’t perfect people and had their share of faults.  But they also had many important qualities.  One of the difficulties in life is our tendency to focus on the negatives in relationships rather than the positives.  But love overlooks the faults and the failings.  It’s not that they aren’t dealt with; it’s just that they can become overblown in our minds and we lose sight of the treasure that is there.

Although my dad and I argued all the time when together, when we were apart (my going to college) we seemed to get along much better. Then he had a powerful experience with the Lord at a Methodist prayer retreat in Michigan in the fall of 1967.  It really transformed my dad.  A year later they invited me to join them at this same retreat.  I really didn’t want to go, but nothing was going on at college and it came down to not wanting to disappoint them because I knew my coming was important to them.  It was there that I encountered the Lord in a way beyond anything I could imagine!

As their faith grew, Mom’s friends nicknamed her Andrew, because she was forever telling someone about Jesus.  She and Dad made quite a pair.  They became prayer warriors (intercessors).  I’m sure it was through their prayers that my brother (Richard), sister (Judy) and I received many blessings.  One of the foremost of which is that Richard and his wife just celebrated their 42^nd anniversary while Judy and her husband and Donna and I are celebrating our 41^st anniversaries this year.

All of us are somebody’s kids – and most of us are parents.  Take some time over the next few days to focus on the positives in your relationships with your parents and your children.  Look past the negatives and hard places.  Allow the Lord to increase your appreciation for the positives that are there and to have wisdom in how to pray so that the relationships will be strengthened.  Appreciate those you have while they are still here.