Meet Me In The Garden

Seven years ago yesterday my husband and I were married. This was a hard decision for me, as well as for him I am sure.

For me it meant moving a long long way from my family. Being raised in the eastern US and him living in Texas I knew it was going to be change. (NEVER did I realize how much change!) I was a widow who had a good marriage for almost 30 years and was afraid of marrying someone who was not going to work to make a good marriage. I also did not want to move from my family.  However, the last year of my first husband’s life he was telling me how he was praying for God to bring the right man into my life when he was gone and that I needed to be prepared to move away from the kids. I did tell him never would I do that (And my preaching was always, never say never!)

Rick came into my life a little less than 5 years after Willie’s death and, frankly, I tried to get rid of him. I was staying on the east coast, I was not moving that far away so there was no reason to get to know him! He asked if we could not just be friends and chat. He wanted to learn more about having a good marriage and since we seemed to have so much in common maybe we could just be friends.

His situation was failed marriages, now living for the Lord and wanting to have a wife that was a Godly woman. He had been alone for some time and working on his Spiritual life.

Needless to say, God worked and here I am in Texas! What a change, and not all good. I am used to nice Green trees, grass, rain, mountains and rivers. Lakes that are not man made but beautiful, God made, with gorgeous settings.

Not Texas! Rocks, scattered trees and lots of prickly pear cactus. Hot. Dry. A “river” is a gully with a trickle in it and a “tank” is a small pond. There are critters I never heard of yet they are beautiful, poisonous and can make you pretty sick.

I can add the fox and bob cat and wild pigs and all but then again, my mom lives in a built up area of NJ and has her share of bears so I guess these other animals do not count.

Seven years yesterday. Already.

When we married I prayed for my husband. You see, I was a pastor’s wife and his life was so different from mine. Now he was changing and growing but the church he was going to, and actually was his job as building administrator, was far from the truth of the Bible. Yes, he was a born again Christian, but the more I attended that church the more the fallacies of what was being preached became obvious.  I began to point them out to my husband and show him the truth in Scripture. His first reaction was anger at me. He had been brought to the Lord through this teaching and now was fully believing all that was being told. When I showed him how things were being taken out of context and you can’t properly interpret the Bible that way he balked at all of it.

I shut up and began to pray. My prayer was, and still is,  from Colossians:

⁹ For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰ so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

Rick did begin to see the truth. Not because I pushed, but because I prayed. Rick is a studier and began to study when something the pastor said did not set right. He then studied out things I had said and asked questions. He listened to speakers on the computer.

One day, on his day off, he wanted to take a ride. We drove for some time and I asked where we were going. We went to a small town called Clifton, TX. When I asked why he told me he wanted to find out where a small church was as he had heard the preacher online. Some time later, he told me we were going to a Monday night service they were having there as he wanted to hear this man. He had been writing to him by email and was interested.

Monday came and on the way there I finally said “Who are we going to go listen to”. I am glad I was sitting down when he told me as the very man we were going to hear teach was the man I had as a faculty adviser when I went to an East coast Bible College years before!

Seven years and this husband of mine has changed so much. He quit his job at the church and stepped out in faith by taking a job for much less pay than he was making (and we were hardly making it financially before!) so that he could get out of the un-Biblical teaching.

I have learned prayer works way better than nagging, complaining and pushing. Colossians has the plan and the pattern for praying for others and especially our spouses.

No, Rick is not perfect but neither am I. Maybe another few years and more of the verse will be answered as well.

Yesterday, while we were out, Rick prayed a number of times. Each time he thanked God for bringing us together 7 years ago.  I guess he is happy with me 

Now, where in the Bible is a prayer that will get him to move closer to MY family?

I went to bed last night in 2011 and woke with a cat jumping on me at 5:08 AM.  Many thoughts were running through my mind at that thud when the biggest cat we own pounced on me. First: Kill the cat!  I usually am up by then, but when I have a day I can sleep in I would love to stay in bed for a bit. Animals just do not understand sleeping in a bit!

Second, I thought about how much I had to get done before my husband’s side has Christmas. Everyone had other places on Christmas day so we are doing it today. Leaves lots to get done.

Third, my thoughts went to my family and how horribly much I miss them all. How I wish Texas was on the East Coast so I could be with them too. I woke hurting and wishing.

THEN: I realized I just woke up in another year! 2012!  How fast the time has gone. I guess that is part of getting older, but I just can’t believe how fast time goes now. I do not accomplish near what I used to and poof, the day is gone, then the week and now…. the year!

In my email today there was a Cybersalt Digest. For those who do not get it I suggest it.  He had a few quotes I will share with you:

“Many years ago I resolved never to bother with New Year’s resolutions, and I’ve stuck with it ever since.”
- Dave Beard

“A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.”

While the top two are humorous, the next two hit a bit of a chord with me.

“We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”
- Edith Lovejoy Pierce

“Every man should be born again on the first day of January.  Start with a fresh page.  Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.”
- Henry Ward Beecher

It is a New Year. We may have failures, hurts, fears and regrets from the past, but we can make changes and begin to move on. A new start.

While not everything can be changed overnight like the year did, we can change our thinking, change attitudes, motives and such.  With me, I will need to keep putting one foot in front of the other. slowly, and purposely reach out to God in faith.  My family. My life changes here. Every fear.

Life is not smooth sailing. This year will be no different I am sure. In fact I am starting mine like many, big financial  expenses hit us at the end of the year (like the washer and dryer both going!  our car goes in the shop Tuesday and I have no idea what that will be) For me this provokes fear.

Clean page? New start? Mind adjustments? A new chapter in life, a new year.

While I can’t write my year and have it stress free, I can change and work on me as I approach the new year. I can draw closer to the Author of the New Year and trust HIM as the blank slate of this year opens up  in HIS plans.

Happy New Year everyone.

Think I am going to say Jareds? No!

First, we do not have money for “fluff” and sometimes find it hard to pay the bills.  We also have 20 grand kids to buy for as well as 8 kids and 7 spouses.  Our kitchen and 2 bathrooms are in a state of remodeling (not by choice but because floors/plumbing or something else made it a necessity). Our washer is clunking and the dryer takes 2 hours to dry a load of clothes.

Get the picture?

My husband had me in the car returning from somewhere when he veered way off course. I asked where we were going, he laughed and told me he knew. I kept wondering and asking and he said for my present. I am thinking “washer?”

We pull into a MALL! We NEVER, NEVER go to a mall!

We walk in and he says “Every kiss begins with….”

Then we walked into Kay’s Jewelers.

I now have a beautiful open heart necklace. He said he has had overtime and we only ever get needs not real gifts, so he was giving me a real gift.

Then the washer started ripping our clothes.  I am not taking the necklace back!

I will be posting soon, but after being hacked I am back again thanks to twentypointnine.com Thank you Eugene!!

This new schedule is tiring! I still am not able to sleep until Rick is home and still get up early. I have to admit, early is not as early as it was before. Now, I am lucky if I have my coffee in my hand when my granddaughter arrives, before I at least had sipped it!

Last weekend was the first weekend he did not have to work. We still had the cleaning job, but at least he had a day off on Saturday. We were able to spend some time together and it was a blessing.

We realized too, that while we need the money from the cleaning job, we can’t keep up this schedule. It is wearing us down. I guess age the hours are getting to us.  Sundays we go to church (75 miles away) then rush home, change and go to work. Usually there is an interruption making it after 8  till we are home and eating supper. Before we know it Monday is here and we start over again. Wednesday nights I clean by myself. While it is not a tough job it means I need to stay at work till Rick gets off (anywhere from 11:30PM on). All I can do is sit and wait.

More changes are ahead as we try to figure a way to make up the money but have it easier on these bodies and give us a much needed day off on a regular basis.

As I was thinking about this I was reminded by the Lord of how he took care of us through the last 3 + years and how he took care of me while I was a widow. Rick took this job in Faith. The pay was about $7 an hour less than what he was making in his previous job. However, he was working for a church that was straying so far from the truth that we could no longer stay there and God opened this door only 3 miles from home. This business paid more of the insurance than the church did so it saved us over $100 a week right there. We stepped out in faith and took the job knowing it would be only God that would get us through.

Shortly after he took it the plant had a lay off. Each week we prayed he would not lose his job and God kept him there. Then they cut hours to 24 a week. God got us through that without falling behind on a credit card, car loan or other bills. We did have to make smaller medical payments but we got through.

Work picked up, Rick got raises and then a promotion. Still not what he was making, but better than we were.  My cleaning job was a big asset and God used it to get us through and help us make ends meet. For me this was a real faith booster. We had this cleaning job while working at the church and needed the money, yet here we were making so much less and still seeing the needs met.

Now, he is still not making what he did back then and we feel we need to give up the cleaning. This is a real test of my faith.  We are so tired though that we see no answer but to let it go at the end of the year.

I know God will come through. More changes.