"I Do"

I made a lot of promises when I got married. "Love, honor, cherish,.. in sickness and health..."
I made these promises in front of my family, friends, church, and God. I intend to keep them "until death do us part." I know there are days when I have not honored my wife and when she is sick, I am a terrible caregiver. I still love her and am still married to her. She is caring and forgiving and understands my limitations, although I am committed to constant improvement. I want to be the best husband I can be, but I do not always succeed. This is not a blog entry about my marriage, though. It is about promises and committment.
I made a similar committment to God in front of other people, family, friends, church...etc. I meant it with all of my heart and still do. I promised to live my life for Him. To love, honor, cherish, ... in my sickness and health.. until "never" do us part. I didn't use those words, exactly, but that is the committment I made in my heart. Yet there are days when I do not honor Him, and there are days when I make choices that break the promises I made. In my heart, I feel regret, I feel shame, I am truly sorry. I go to Him and express these things to Him. He has always loved me and forgiven me. This does not make me feel like it is OK to continue to make these bad choices, as a matter of fact, it makes me want to be more committed. I have read in the Bible what He went through in order to take me as his own. I am continuing every day to make each and every choice in a way that honors our relationship.
"Lord, I pray that the choices I make will be honoring to you and our relationship that is based on choosing to love each other every day." -Amen