Faithful and loyal...

I recently found an old newspaper article I had about a couple who had gotten married, and then three weeks later the husband was shipped off to the Vietnam war. Unfortunately he was severely injured in battle and literally became a vegetable (physically and mentally). Everyone expected and encouraged the wife to leave leave her husband, even his own family. But she chose to do what she felt was the right thing. Several weeks earlier she had made a commitment to stay with him through the good or bad, in sickness and health, or whether rich or poor. And that's exactly what she did. She made that decision to stay with him over 40 years ago and is still by his side. We live in a culture where being unfaithful and disloyal is commonplace and is often justified and encouraged. So what is disloyalty? According to Webster's it's, "Lacking in loyalty; showing an absence of allegiance, devotion, obligation, faith, or support." In every arena of life, people will choose to walk away from something they shouldn't. Perhaps it's a marriage, a family, a relationship or something else. Unfaithfulness and disloyalty shouldn't come as a surprise to us. We see that even Jesus had people do it to Him (John 6:66) and according to the Bible, many will walk away from the faith in the days ahead (1 Tim 4:1). When I think of loyalty and faithfulness, I immediately think of Jesus. He is our example of what a Christian should look like when it comes to these two areas. Just because we live in a culture where unfaithfulness and disloyalty are common, don't fall into the culture's mold. Choose to be faithful and loyal in every area of your life, just like Jesus.