50 years ago today, I awoke with expectancy and a little fear...I had signed up to meet a stranger that night...a computer date...at our school...a school wide activity...if you wanted to do it...I had talked several of the girls in my floor into doing this... You know- "suffer together" ...
I had never done anything like this...so totally out of character...(and now we see several computer dating match sites advertised). This was computer punch card era...how they were matched I don't know...we had both put "travelled to Alaska", (we deduced that was probably our matching factor)...at least we thought so...similar backgrounds, values we found out...rural, farming, small town people...independent, fidelity, "religious", parents still married, family oriented...factors which we later built on...
He was the last of the men to show up for their date...I was scared stiff...we were to go to a dance, but sat and talked all evening instead... It was the end of the term, finals week followed and then Christmas break...we exchanged Christmas cards...I don't remember how we got each other's addresses, but I remember sending one first...and then receiving his in return...
When school resumed in January, he saw me studying in the library, out of the snow, we visited and then started seeing one another regularly and the rest is history, so they say...
On this day 50 years ago, I never envisioned the life we would have together, the children we were blessed with, the joys and heartaches, the highs and lows, the lean and fat years, the faith that carried us through it all...But God did...I am thankful that He saw fit to put us together...even though I spend this anniversary as a widow...I wouldn't change it...wonderful, wonderful times were had in our marriage...
Thank YOU...for the partner You gave, the years You blessed us with, the children and grandchildren You continue to bless me with...along the path...
I know this verse speaks of end times, but death came as a thief in our marriage...and we desired to finish well..to live holy and godly lives as partners here...we didn't always succeed, but we worked on it...
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives
2 Peter 3:10-11
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
1 Peter 3:7
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body.
"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Ephesians 5:22-33
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