Have you ever said something to someone you love which, later you came to know, caused injury and grievous pain? I’m guilty. At the time I didn’t have a clue. And when it resurfaced I thought it was rather trivial and expressed it as such, which caused more pain. Guilty again!

Oftentimes we don’t realize the profundity of the things we say in our interactions with other people. I have said things to my wife in the past that have caused her great harm. In our 12 years of marriage, we have walked through the coals, as it were, with regard to how hurtful we can be to each other. I take 100 percent of the blame for this. I’m thankful that I have a forgiving wife.

I composed a sonnet which is influenced by several people and biblical perspectives: my wife, five wise men (accountability partners with whom I have close relationships), one of whom, Jim Rose, preached a sermon that influenced this sonnet (titled Blind Spots), and 1 Corinthians 13, also known as “The Love chapter.” By the way, Jim’s sermon will provide you with godly tools that provide compunction and healing in these situations.

I hope you appreciate Beatitude of Love.

Beatitude of Love

For Dawn on our twelfth wedding anniversary

A dozen years and we are doing fine, 
For all the scrub and scour of sinful man, 
Which cleans up nice but comes back over time,  
The ancient human stain in spades again.
Perception crashes into Love's design:
Our view of what each other must become. 
Yet Love's the nurse who mends a broken mind,
But Love's enigma tempts our hearts to run. 
So Love's perspective never can be wrong,
And hearts that burn for honest Love will thrive,
Or else the tongue resounds just like a gong, 
And faith and hope and Love will not survive. 
We smash the mirrors from our flagrant past,
And face to face we meet with Love at last.