Happily Ever After

I did not get up at any special hour to watch the royal wedding today. I had an invitation to a "watch party" of sorts, and I did consider it for a minute. But ultimately I decided to just sleep until I woke up....which I did at 5:00am, which is pretty customary for me these days...and then I watched the wedding...lol! Not all of the wedding, mind you, I didn't actually turn on the television until around 6:30...but then I watched from there. By the way, it was a lovely wedding. 

I hear that it was much different than other royal weddings, and I believe that, even though the last royal wedding I actively followed was Diana and Charles...in 1981. There was more pomp and circumstance around Meghan and Harry than I have ever seen in person at an American wedding, although the Catholic weddings I've been to give it a good run! But I was happy to see that this wedding was also fun and free, including an energetic sermon about love that makes me feel like I have had my church for the week! (I'm still going to church tomorrow, though...lol! I love church!) 

It was a simple message: Love God, Love your Neighbor, Love Yourself. Three good things that naturally branch from one another and, as I have said before, make the world a nicer place when freely practiced. But you have to keep them in order...Love God first, because God is love and God loves us. He loves us so much that He sent His Son, He came as a man, to die for the sin that makes us unlovely. My dad once gave me a birthday card that read, "I love you for 2 very good reasons: 1. I'm your dad and 2. You love me back." That kind of love comes natural. We should love God back simply because of his sacrificial love for us.

Out of our love for God comes a love for what (and who) He loves, our Neighbors...the people all around us...even the ones that are unlovely. I often remind myself, especially when dealing with difficult people, that "People are people, wherever you go." They are, and people are flawed, and hurting, and occasionally prone to angry outbursts. Some people can be quite unlovely, quite hard to love, much of the time. Still, we are to love who God loves, in the best way we can. After all, aren't we all unlovely, at least some of the time? 

We are, and that brings us to the third love...the love for ourselves. We are People, and people are people wherever you go, and I know my own flaws (and you know yours) better than any other human on the planet. So how can you love yourself, knowing how unlovely you are? Circle back to that first point...God is love and God loves us! While we were still sinners (today, yesterday, tomorrow...we are all still sinners) He died for us. If he loves me, values me, cherishes me enough to die for me, how could I not love me, too? I do not always like me, I do not always like the things I say and do, but I always have a reason to love me. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. If Jesus loves me, I can love me, too. 

I cried a little on the couch while I watched Harry and Meghan say "I do"...I tend to tear up at weddings, especially as I remember when Sweetie and I said our vows, many moons ago. I hope that everyone at today's big wedding, and everyone watching around the world, heard that message about love and that it will make a difference in the way we all live our lives from this day forward.

I hope that Meghan and Harry do experience marriage "until death do us part," and that they have times of sanctuary from the watching world as they learn to live and love together. Rough days will come, that's what "worse" and "poorer" and "sickness" represent in the vows...not an if, but a when...and I hope they remember this day and that sermon. I hope they choose love over and over, even if happily ever after isn't the fairy tale they hoped it would be, and I hope that their family and friends provide love and encouragement through the process.

I hope you and I are learning to love better with every passing day, week, month and year. As we get to know ourselves and our own flaws better, I hope we are able to practice grace and love more and more. And even though I know that "happily ever after" is not as common as "just doing our best to get through today," I hope that there is some happily ever after thrown in for good measure.

Thanks for stopping by. May you Knit your own Happily Ever After by loving well and in Good Health!