Staying in Love

Pastor DawnChere and Rich Wilkerson from Vous Church in Miami preach a great sermon about love that lasts. DawnChere and Rich talk about how to build lasting love in marriage, but this wisdom can be applied to pretty much any relationship. All different types of relationships require these qualities; protection, trust, hope and perseverance. I like what Rich Wilkerson says: "If you want a quality life you are going to have to learn how to have quality love." No matter how much money, possessions or power we get in life nothing will give us more joy than our relationships. If we love well, we will live well.

The Bible teaches us many things about quality love. The first thing we learn from the Bible is that love always protects. When we are married it's our job to always protect our spouse's heart, to always protect them emotionally. When we learn to be self-controlled and respectful in our conversations we can have tough conversations without hurting our spouse in the process. Protecting our spouse also means that we are not only going to tell them what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. When our spouse is going through something difficult it's our job to speak truth wrapped in love to them.

The second thing the Bible teaches us is that love always hopes, always trusts. It's very important for every relationship,every marriage, to have hope. The thing is, your marriage will never have hope if you do not first have trust. Rich and DawnChere mention three different ways we can build trust in a relationship in the sermon video.

The third thing the Bible teaches us about love is that love always perseveres. Not even one of us can say that we have a perfect marriage, that we have never made any mistakes in our relationships or that the past five years of our marriage have been pure bliss. Perfection is not what we are after in relationships, because it can never be achieved. What makes all the difference in our marriages is when we stick it out, when we decide not to quit. Sometimes we will get tired, sometimes we will feel like quitting and other times we will be stretched in our marriages. What makes all the difference in a marriage is when we decide to persevere. Perseverance is what's going to take you to a love that lasts a lifetime.