Renew Your Covenant

As we finish this focus on relationships I invite you to renew the covenant you have made with your spouse through marriage, but also the covenant you have with your family. Many people view their relationships as a contract and not a covenant, but these two relational agreements are different.
A contract is usually a written agreement based on distrust. It is written to make sure the other person fulfills their conditions and the consequences if broken. It comes with limited liability and establishes a time frame for certain requirements to be met and accomplished. A contract can be broken with mutual consent.
However, a covenant is a verbal commitment based on trust, assuring someone that your promise is unconditional and good for life. It is spoken before God out of love for another. It is for the benefit of others and comes with unlimited responsibility and has no expiration date. It is intended to be unbreakable.
With a contract we can find reasons and excuses to break the contract, but a covenant is a commitment to continue on no matter what. We can renew our covenant relationships with those we love and recommit ourselves to loving others with the unconditional love of God. Our families and relationships will only be fireproof as long as we are striving for God's love to live in us. So let's not settle for what we have, but strive forward in God's love.

SIDE NOTE: As I begin my spiritual renewal time Thursday I will be away for four weeks, but I hope to blog twice a week if I have the Internet available, but I am not sure I will always have Internet. (Although Al Gore, "inventor of the Internet", is from Tennessee, they are still not fully into the 21st Century in all places.) I just want to have a place to share whatever God is teaching me in my renewal time. I will be praying for you, so I hope you will pray for me as well.