My Husband!!

Yesterday, yes 9/11, was Jim's birthday, and today is a day of reflection for me.  We met on a youth group hayride – we were sixteen, and life has not been the same since.  Oh, we had our ups and downs, before and after we got married – we are still human, but it will have been fifty years this fall since we “started talking.”

I had in my mind some things I was looking for in a boyfriend/ husband back then, and those things are still important, starting with respect.  He had to be the kind of man I would respect.  Well, my Jim was a Boy Scout.  No!, the real thing – a Star Scout and Chief of the Order of the Arrow. (Boy Scout people will understand what that is.)  Honestly, he would probably have attained the rank of Eagle Scout if it hadn’t been for that hayride. 

He cared about people, and that was reflected in his election as president of the student body of his high school.  His leadership qualities showed themselves early on and that was important to me – not that he was president, we went to different high schools, but that he was a leader.  I knew I needed a leader.

I needed to feel confident that this man, with whom I would spend my life, would be able to take care of me – physically, emotionally, spiritually…well, you get the idea.  I needed to have confidence that I would be safe with him.  I know you may think this is a little late to mention, but he had to be a believer, someone who cared about God’s will for his life – and mine. He remembers me telling him, when we were first dating, that I was going to the mission field, and he could come too if he wanted.  You can see we talked about a lot of things.

I guess, as I think about all of this, I am concerned that young women today do not think about some of these issues as they date and marry.  I fear too many yield to the pressures they feel to be “in a relationship” that they don’t give serious thought to what it would be like to spend their entire lives with this one man. 

This morning someone posted the words of Isabel Allende on facebook: “Write what should not be forgotten.”  I’ve been thinking about it ever since I read it, and then considered – what are the words that should not be forgotten?  I think the words that we say, that we will love and honor, and for a lot of us, obey our husbands are pretty important words.  And we need to remind young women that you don’t stay married happily if you don’t first mean, and then live out those words. 

But today I just want to honor my husband – for being a man of God, my leader, the one who has loved me as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

 

March 22, 2012 To encourage you

Funny how when you are sick, especially with a sinus infection, or I guess anything that hurts your head, or maybe any part of your body, your mind gets messed up too. I have tried for the last week to write, but between burning eyes and tired brain, obviously, little has emerged. So, I thought I would share part of a document I prepared a few days for a hurting friend.

Psalm 104:33 I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise unto my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.

Psalm 107: 28-21 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.  He maketh the storm to calm, so the waves thereof are still.  Then are they glad  because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

Psalms 111:2,4 The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein...He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.

Psalm 112:4  Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness; he is gracious and full of compassion and righteous.

Psalm 118: 5-6, 14, 24  I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me....The Lord is my strength and my song and is become my salvation.....This is the day the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

 Psalm 119:50, 114,143, 165  This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me....Thou art my hiding place and  my shield: I hope in thy word....Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delight...Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.      

Psalm 120:1 In my distress I cried unto the Lord and he heard me.

Psalm 139:14 I will praise thee; for I  am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well.

Psalm 141: 2 Let my prayer be set fopr6th before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Psalm 145:8-10, 17-18 The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy.  The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are overall his works.  All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee.....The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

Psalm 147:P 11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

I Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you!!!!!!!!!