Ruth Graham’s children quote her as saying about her marriage to Billy Graham, “Divorce, never. Murder, maybe.” (Of course, the power of this quotation rests on the confident assumption that Ruth Graham would never murder her husband!) Considering Billy Graham’s travels, work, and celebrity, Ruth’s commitment to him was quite significant. And to carry off a tongue-in-cheek statement that emphasizes a strong commitment to marriage – instead of an inclination to murder – indicates that Ruth Graham lived “divorce, never.”

I am always struck by the faithfulness of people who make it through life with one other person…let alone make it through a tough life with one other person. And Ruth was one who actually did it. For the past couple of weeks, I keep returning to this one woman’s commitment never ever to abandon her husband. Is my commitment to marriage – my own and others’ – so strong as to say confidently, “divorce, never”? (And, yikes, would my children know for sure that I was joking when I added “murder, maybe”?)

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” -Hebrews 12: 1 – 3