Ruth Bell Graham wrote dozens of poems over the course of her life, many of them shaped by faith, prayer, and the realities of family life and marriage. She wrote honestly about the type of love that flourishes out of patience, sacrifice and devotion.
This Valentine’s Day, we invite you to read one of Ruth Bell Graham’s poems on love—a prayerful reflection that captures the kind of love that grows slowly and lasts faithfully.
Through The Years
Train our love
that it may grow
slowly … deeply … steadily;
till our hearts will overflow
unrestrained and readily.
Discipline it too,
dear God;
strength of steel
throughout the whole.
Teach us patience,
thoughtfulness,
tenderness, and
self-control.
Deepen it
throughout the years,
age and mellow it
until,
time that finds us
old without,
within,
will find us
lovers still.