RE: Reconciliation/Sacred Marriage

From: Simmons, Amon

Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 9:41 AM
To: Danny Sims
Subject: Reconciliation/Sacred Marriage

Danny,

Good Morning, I have been enjoying this series of sermons on racial reconciliation, for obvious reasons. I have been able to parallel some of these same teachings to our marriage, so I guess we are receiving a double portion of teaching. (If you have an extra copy of Sacred Marriage, I’d love to have one) I remember when Lori and I used to walk around in Abilene together in the early 90’s while we were dating in college. Wow, the looks that we would get being an interracial couple holding hands. I wonder what those same people who looked at us with judgment would say now that we have been together for almost 17 years and married for almost 14 years. Nothing reminds me more of how beautiful my wife is then when we are complimented on our three children and how gorgeous their individual skin tones are. Both girls, Taegan and Bryn, have dark hair and dark eyes like their father and Talon our son has blonde hair and blue eyes like his mother; imagine the looks we get now!!

There is nothing more plain to those three children than the fact that their father is African American and their mother is Caucasian. My point is, the children and our responsibility to them. When they call for Mommy, they are calling for Mommy. When they call for Daddy, they are calling for Daddy. Why don’t we as Christians do the same? I believe God’s children should not feel as though they are praying to a God who is one race or another or a God that is hearing my prayer different due to my ethnicity, but to our Parent who loves us no matter what ethnic background we come from. Today, at this very moment, I love my wife more than I ever have and tomorrow it will be more than today. Though we have had our struggles as an interracial couple, we have chosen to embrace and accept our differences in upbringing and culture, all the while deciding together of how to pass those values on to our children.

Lori and I have always said something about our children and how they should think of themselves if ever asked: “They will be blessed, and others will not have the luxury of what we are able to give them in the form of diversity and cultural backgrounds. Our promise to each other and to our children is that they will first know that God sees them for who they are and it is our responsibility to provide them with an equal share of our separate cultures and thus be considered to have received nothing less than the very best of both worlds.”

If we are looking for racial, marriage, or any type of relational reconciliation, we have got to stop looking at the past for answers, and begin using the past as opportunities to grow from. Our God is forward thinking (“old things are passed away”, “ I will remember your sins no more”) and we must see things His way, instead of in our own way because we as humans tend to look backwards when we struggle through anything looking for a foundation to stand on. Through faith in Him, look to the future and how we teach our children today to accept each other relationally when they are adults. Give them the correct foundation today.