Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Proverbs 31:10 (04/13/23)
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TITLE: There's a Space for My Name in the Bible! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Noel Mitaxa
04/20/23 -
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I met my wife in my second year of pastoral training in Bible college, when she came to study Christian education, wanting to develop her church’s Sunday school department. God had been lurking in the background, for I had been appointed to this church for the next two years as a student pastor.
Has God got a sense of humor? Absolutely, for while driving home one weekend, a huge spider fell from behind the sun visor and landed on her lap. Startled, she rear-ended the car in front. I chivalrously offered to be her chauffer while her car was being repaired, which gave me extra time to get to know her and her family, and to appreciate their quality. And though spiders have never been - and never will be - my choice of pets, in an ironic twist, God used the spider’s intervention to introduce us to the element of anticipation and romance!
Her father was an architect, and I’m grateful that she also knew where to draw the line. For we were married just over a year later - for better or for worse. I could do no better and she could do no worse!
After I was ordained eighteen months later, we moved to a church in a far corner of our state. With no online or correspondence study available back then, she never graduated. Yes folks, she had put the heart before the course!
Over almost five decades, four kids and their marriages, and seven grandchildren, I’ve seen her embrace changes with a quiet, positive attitude, as she recognizes God’s call within these changes. She continues to inspire me with her openness, her anticipation, and the fun of being a mother and a grandmother.
We have hoped, dreamed, prayed, laughed, and wept together over the years, and I reflect with gratitude on the risks she has taken to share in a variegated ministry pilgrimage: through pastoring in local churches, in industrial chaplaincy, in many years of sports ministry, as a funeral celebrant, and in chaplaincy with an international cruise line.
Alongside all of this support, she also put in several very effective years of teaching children with a range of special needs and disabilities - one of whom later become the school captain.
Her hospitality skills show an open heart that reflects an open home, whether we’ve lived in church manses, our own homes, including several years on a hobby farm, and she has always given regular folks and total strangers a warm welcome.
Whether we have enjoyed the security of church stipends, or lived without any predictable income, she has balanced her daily routine with staying open to God’s provision, and whatever his next move might be for us.
And her attitude to this husband, to roll with the highs and lows of serving God and the people he loves, might be seen in a Valentine’s Day card she once gave me. On the front it read, “Because it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought you’d like to know how I feel.”
Opening it up, with anticipation rising, I read, “I feel fine thanks.”
You just can’t buy that level of love…
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Whether I'm correct, or not, I hope you place high. You're obviously already high on love for your wife.
This was such a joyful and sentimental read. Your marriage, and deep love for each other is so beautiful, and I love the humor interspersed throughout.
And of course, your mutual love of the LORD, in all aspects of your marriage.
May you sail the seas of love for many more decades!
So glad you are back to "your old self" and I'm sure your wife is too!
God BLess you both~