A Little Love Story

In honor of my parents’ wedding anniversary today (53 years!), here is a little presentation they gave at a Valentine’s banquet 20 years ago. I found it on my dad’s computer a few weeks ago. If you know my parents, it’s really cute. (It’s probably cute even if you don’t know them!)

HOW WE MET

S – Since this is a couple’s banquet, and maybe because we have been around a looong time, Pastor wanted us to share with you the story of how we met. We know each of you has a story, maybe more interesting than ours, but here is our story. It happened so long ago we have to use notes because our memories are not what they used to be. In fact, there are some items each of us remembered that the other had forgotten.

M – I once read there were three types of people in the world: the high risk who climb mountains, drive race cars, parachute jumpers; the medium risk people who fly in airplanes, drive up mountain roads, travel to Europe, and go water-skiing. Then there are the low-risk people (of which I am one) who need to have two feet planted on solid ground and flat ground at that.

Being a low-risk person and having observed a number of marriages as I was growing up, I decided to be an old-maid schoolteacher. Marriage looked too risky to me. There were too many unknowns down that road.

S – It was our senior year in college and even though we had been going to DSC for several years together, I did not know M. I did, however, know her sister, Sally. Sally worked in the periodical area upstairs in the library. If a person needed a magazine, they would give her the information and she would get the magazine for them. 

I was working on an assignment and wanted information from a magazine I could not find in the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature but had seen when it first came out. I knew what the cover looked like and therefore asked Sally if I could go back into the periodical section to look for the magazine. She said I could not. She was the only one who could go into that area of the library.

I looked over in that direction and saw this girl in a tan trench coat looking through the magazines and asked why she could be over there. Sally answered, “Because she is my sister.” That is the first time I ever remember seeing M.

M – Sally was a little over year younger than me and was my best friend. She was family and I could trust her and share with her all my thoughts and feelings.

S – After that, I saw M a number of times, but she was almost always with a group of friends. I called them bodyguards. A couple times she was by herself and I visited with her for a while, but by the time we graduated, I had spent very little time with her.

Before graduation, the superintendent of the Newton schools was interviewing prospective teachers. When he interviewed me, he mentioned that M had signed a contract to teach in Newton. I was glad there would be someone there I sort of knew. I did sign my contract to teach also in Newton.

M – In August, after we graduated and before school started, Sally got married. I was her bridesmaid. The wedding went fine, all was well, until I got home that night. Then it hit me I had lost my best friend, or so I thought. She had other commitments now and would not always be there for me to share with as she had been all my life. I began crying and I asked the Lord to send me a friend to fill her place. I forgot to specify that it was to be a female friend. Well, a few weeks after her wedding I started my teaching job in Newton, where the Lord had the answer to my prayer.

S – My apartment in Newton was on the street M would walk on the way to church. If I happened to be outside, I would greet her as she went by going to or coming from services. Luckily for me she did not have a car. 

M – One evening I was standing by my kitchen window washing dishes, when a fellow drove by who I had spoken to only few times in college and in passing since coming to Newton. He was looking in the direction of my window and I decided I needed to be polite and acknowledge him, so I gave a little wave. To my surprise he pulled in and came to the door. I rushed around gathering up my drying laundry on the chairs before I opened the door. We had a pleasant visit, the first of many.

S – I wanted to spend more time with her but the only place she would go with me was to church.  Because she did not own a vehicle and because her parents’ home was on the way to my parents’ farm, she would catch a ride with me to her parents’ home on weekends. 

As I attended church with her, my interest in M also developed into an interest in spiritual things. Later that fall, as a result of prayers of people in the church, I gave my heart to Christ.

M – I enjoyed our times together. He was always thoughtful, considerate, and helpful. He would come over in the evening to help correct papers and average grades for my report cards (he was better at math than me and he had a calculator). I don’t know when he got his work done. If I needed help with anything, he would be there. He even helped move a piano into my trailer house.

Then one day I realized God had answered my prayer. He had sent me a friend. I was a little concerned about our friendship though, because if you remember, my plans were to be an old-maid schoolteacher.  I worried that if I stayed in Newton, our friendship would probably lead to marriage. I decided to resign my teaching position at the end of that year. I planned to attend Bible college in Missouri the following year. Well, after looking over my financial situation, I realized I did not have enough money saved to go to college the next year.

S – The superintendent approached me after she resigned her contract to see if I could talk her into staying. I told him I had already tried, but to no avail. Fortunately, she decided on her own to stay at Newton and asked for her contract back, so both the superintendent and I were happy.

M – As Job says, what I feared came upon me. At the end of the next school year, we were married and have been for over 33 years. I am thrilled with the way the Lord answered my prayer.

S – As am I!!!!

M – A verse from the Bible that spoke to me early in our marriage is found in Ephesians 5:33 paraphrased in the Living Bible: “So again I say, a man must love his wife as a part of himself; and the wife must see to it that she deeply respects her husband – obeying, praising, & honoring him.”

The praising part really stood out to me. I was not to be critical of my husband, but rather I was to praise him, affirm and commend him.  This verse really made a difference in our relationship.

S – In the verse M quoted it says, “a man must love his wife ….” That, of course, is easy when you first “fall in love,” but later there are times when you do not feel very loving.  It took me longer than M (I am a slow learner), but I finally concluded that my love for my spouse, as well as God and others, is not always a feeling, but a conscious decision resulting in actions as we can see from First Corinthians 13, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”