Every Day Valentine

Lord, I’m tired of being alone.

It had been almost four years since the love of my life, my first wife of 53 years, had passed away. For 39 years, we lived together in our last house. After she passed, I continued – alone – in that same house. Same house, same furniture, same pictures, everything the same except she was gone. If I heard any noise, I made it. Any meal that was fixed, I fixed it.   I cleaned the house, mowed the lawn, and paid the bills. I worked on my computer. I wrote. I read. I went to my job and then came home to an empty, silent house. Yes, my children came by from time to time. But I was alone.

I went to the grocery store alone. I went to church alone. At night, I slept alone in an empty, quiet house. Lord, I’m tired of being alone.

Then I prayed. But, Lord, I don’t want just any woman. I want a wife like Lemuel described in the book of Proverbs. “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life”.- –  “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.”  (Proverbs  31:10-12, 31)

Lord, I want that kind of wife. And I want her to be the widow of a Baptist pastor. (I had served as a Baptist pastor for 13 years and as a lay leader in church for about 40 years.) I prayed that prayer on June 21. And I thought that would never happen. But I asked the Lord anyway.

On July 9, I asked that woman for a date. (That woman’s first marriage had been longer than mine and she and her husband had served in the ministry over forty years.) Then, I added a requirement. “Can you climb into my truck?” (A Ford F-150 with a high entrance step). That may not sound like much, but that could be a huge difficulty for two octogenarians. She said “yes.”  On July 13, we had our first date, and we dated almost every day until I finally proposed to Lyda 12 days later. She said “yes” again. We married on September 25. Her son gave her away. Her son-in-law, a pastor, performed the ceremony; her daughter was bridesmaid, her granddaughter, daughter, and son-in-law sang, and her great-granddaughter was the flower girl. My son was the best man, and my great-grandson was the ringbearer.

In the background, God had worked several miracles to make this possible. I never would have dated Lyda because she lived in a city 300 miles away. But events brought her to my city to stay with her sister and brother-in-law for about a month. After we were engaged, the Lord provided a house for us in my hometown in a way we never expected or imagined. Because of that, I could keep the proceeds from the sale of my home and include them in our retirement savings.

All of this occurred over 3 years ago.

The Lord has given us a sweet, understanding, and loving relationship. Every morning, we have separate times of devotion with the Lord. Then, we have breakfast and our family devotions. We read the  Bible and devotional books and then discuss and pray.

Because this is the second marriage for both of us, we try to avoid the pitfalls of marriage adjustments that came in our first marriage. We don’t always agree, but we can talk things out, love each other, and pray for each other. Our reconciliation method is to talk more, love more, and pray more.

We both had 80 years spent when we didn’t know each other. That gives us many memories and stories to tell that our partner never heard before. Our time of companionship and talking together grows sweeter each day. We share our house, chores, doctor appointments, church attendance, and Christian service. We led our Young At Heart group at church for a while. We also have taken some enjoyable vacation trips together and trips to visit relatives.

God has been so good to us. His grace is sufficient. We have health challenges and sometimes struggle to keep up with all the medicine, surgeries, and doctor appointments. But as we look at other people our age, we know we are abundantly blessed. We still keep our house and yard, fix our meals, drive our car, and live independently.

We look forward to serving the Lord together until He comes or until He takes us home.

As we meditate on these things, we can joyfully say, “Thank you, Lord, for my companion, who is my Valentine every day.”