AUGUST 9, 1969

Mr. and Mrs.

....or maybe you've just been together 

long enough to pick up

 each other's weird habits!

49th ANNIVERSARY ARRIVALS

The day began with appropriate verses.......may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. (Proverbs 5:18) 
I'm so grateful God's Word didn't say young wife as one celebrating 49 years of marriage is no longer young.

Ecclesiastes goes on to remind us the importance of enjoying moments because life is fleeting. "Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun;"  (Ecclesiastes 9:9)

It continued with cards, emails and text messages from friends and ended with "cooper" (for 49 years) gifts  from daughter's family and dinner at their house. Plus, 2 copper 2018 pennies---one for our 49th being celebrated and one for our NEWST GRANDCHILD born this year and a BIG part of the celebration!
Another BIG part was "THE GIFT!"

On this our 49th wedding anniversary, how grateful I am for a hubby who shows his love through "our" anniversary gift. A gift for "us" that he let me commission based on "the sculpture "I" wanted."  A "praise" piece by my favorite Papier-mâché sculptor, Heidi Walter. Each is covered with the sheet music of one of my favorite hymns! (Hymns that will be sung at my funeral one day.

The titles & even my favorite phrases are visible on each. See if you can guess the hymn!

---front...grace my fears relieved, back left...then He appeared and the soul felt its worth, back center...and I'll lead you all in the Dance said He, & God and sinners reconciled, back right...sing like never before, O my soul.

It's more than I could even have imagined. As she said, "there is so much more at play here!" I see something new each day!
Check out the process and read what Heidi had to say. 

Drying in the Memphis heat.

....and kindred spirits because we both love the LORD! Thanks for all hubby & Heidi did to make 48th & now 49th anniversaries so special!

CHOOSE: LOVE

Choose love and find joy!
Greeks had 6 words for love---3 of which were used in NT scripture.
Phileo love (deep friendship) John 12:25, Storge (like a family love) Romans 12:10, a combo of phileo & storge, and agape (unconditional, represented by God's love) John 3:16.
Hebrew definition for love in OT is 'ahabah (similar to GK Eros, romantic love) as depicted in Song of Solomon and Proverbs 5:18.

Today is a day to celebrate love. I celebrated with tea as I read cards & emails, and opened candy from loved ones.
I celebrate "morningtime" with tea. I love tea.
But God.....has shown me that "love" in scripture is not about inanimate objects.
In scripture, love is always the only kind of real love----relational.
So....I guess that excludes my cuppa. But.....I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY like my morning cuppa.
Happy Valentine's Day to all!!

"TEA-ditions"

Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. (Proverbs 5:18, NLT)

Today is our wedding anniversary.....so hubby will have to think hard to visualize any "youth" in said wife. But God, our keeper, has kept us together for 45 years.

Anniversary traditions are always a part of our celebration---

Five years ago I searched far and wide for 40 ruby items....this year it's sapphire BUT 45 sapphire items were way out of this retiree's budget. So...I settled on the things he enjoys most---golf and a glass of wine. Lots of wines come in brilliant sapphire bottles. The problem was which one. Not being a connoisseur of wines, I had to have help. I think the clerk was dumbfounded that I cared more about the richness of the color of the bottle than the richness ("bouquet" in he wine term of a oenophile) of the wine within. Gift 2 is a round of golf at Sapphire Mountain Golf Club for an upcoming trip to western North Carolina when the trees will be brilliant against a rich blue sky.

Naturally, I love all the scriptures reminding husbands to love their wives. (Ephesians 5:22) but many describe what that love will entail.....
"....be exhilarated always with her love...."(Proverbs 5:19c) or as Ecclesiastes 9:9 states, "Live joyfully with the wife whom you love." According to hubby, when I"m happy, it's easier to  to live joyfully with me. So....I've scheduled dinner for us  at the Swag on our extended anniversary trip.
Hopefully, this year's anniversary gifts will provide the perfect cuppa TEA-dition for our celebration.**

**YEA! Hubby's gift follows the TEA-dition as well---Sapphire rules for me, aka Mrs. Rand McNally. An atlas, my favorite gift, had a deep "sapphire" blue cover---I now have Crater Lake blue stars in my eyes! What a thoughtful guy!

Questions....with pictorial answers

8/17/13 QUESTIONS:

1. How do you know you're in the mountains? 
2. How do you know you're in a small town? 
3. What does 60 years of marriage look like?

ANSWERS:

1.   Honor jars serve as the till.

2.  There's diagonal parking on Main Street as in Franklin, NC. .

3.  60 years of marriage  looks like commitment and contentment, with a smile. So be happy with your wife and find your joy with the woman you married. (Proverbs 5:18, GNT)

Let's Dance!

10/14/11 This entry is about dancers in my life---two who have helped me to dance. Dancing for me is a life fully lived. A life I live with the Lord. It's an abunDANCE, as it's full of God's purpose for me while on this earth. It gives me eyes to see His hand in my life through good and bad times. Dancing is passionate. It's embracing those whom God sends across my path---every single one, even the irregular ones who annoy, hurt, and try to rob me of my joy. Learning to live the life God has planned for me and living without fear requires dancing in His arms. Surrendering to Him. Following His lead. It requires spiritual maturity and in my case encouragement from others. Especially those who already know the steps.

Meet Doris and Marge. Two such dancers. They have chosen to live the "dance" God has chosen for them. I have learned much by watching. Though their lives are intentional in choice they make it look easy---like an overflow of love from above. They laugh. They garden. They cook. They read. They selflessly see to the needs of others. They seem tireless. In Him, they live and move and have their being. (Acts 17:28) There's a deep assurance of God's presence in their lives that touches all who cross their paths.

What connects me to them? Certainly we are connected spiritually. Our paths crossed through introductions years ago from other dear friends. A friendship that has grown through the years. We are all family oriented, wives of the husbands of our "youth." (Proverbs 5:18) We share interests: travel, good food, and good literature. Strangely, we all love "Keeper of the Bees" a somewhat obscure classic from the 20s. I know both and yet they still have never met. Maybe I need to make introductions.

What connects them to others? Their lives----every facet of it. They seem to feel and trust the rhythm of God's music for their own lives. They have His ear. They hear His love song.
During their own fearful times, their courage is infectious. Cheer, strength, and peace seem to flow, as one "whose mind is stayed on Thee." (Isaiah 26:3) They know from whom their hope and trust rests and their thoughts are fixed on Him.

"Given to hospitality," has these two dancers opening their homes and hearts to others. "Hospitable to all strangers, but especially to those who were of the household of faith," is the way Romans 12:13 states it. Financially, they have given and given and given, even during times when there might have been little for family, much less others----they gave anyway. Nowadays they both have acquired homes just to share with others. As God blessess, they bless whether out of their lack, or out of their abundance.

The countenance of Doris and Marge is glowing. Smiling. Always smiling. Roman 12:12 describes these dancers as "never flagging in zeal, aglow with the Spirit, serving the Lord." They live above their circumstances because they are always looking up! Pretty much each and every Sunday you will find them pew side at a local UMC, where "Lord of the Dance" is on page 261 of the Methodist hymnal.

How blessed I am to know them. May you, reader, be blessed as well by using their lives as a model. A model to follow as you become a "dancer," not a critic, for those in your life.

Consistently Doris and Marge respond to His grace. They dance. Their lives say to others, "Join us. Let's dance!" Won't you dance too?

"In sickness...."

Mother & Daddy at Bobby & Louise's wedding---Dec. 1971



9/23/10 “In sickness” is just one phrase from most marriage vows but it is a BIG one to honor. I have seen it honored well these last several years. Personally I have experienced it as hubby nursed me through a year of cancer procedures and surgeries. Yet, with us, there was always a hope for a better tomorrow. Not so, for some folks----at least not physically. It’s those folks, honoring those vows, some taken long ago, who impress me. Sickness or debilitation can linger. There can be many days between onset and the end. Then, as the end approaches, time together becomes a sharing of the mechanics of dying.

As Mother was in her final chapter of life, I got a glimpse of 60th year wedding vows “fleshed out.” Sometimes I felt like Mother’s life “ride” was being steered toward the edge of a cliff. As she got closer and closer to the edge, I struggled. I didn’t want to let go of her. I had dreams---not being able to bear it, that soon she would ride in her earthly “life car” over that edge, fall off and crash into the abyss. In reality, I knew that she would really just enter into the Lord’s arms.

I went into denial. Brother Bobby stayed very much in the day-to- day happenings and tended to all her medical and financial affairs. Daddy, on the other hand, lived moment by moment with her in the midst of her sickness. They had moments. Hard moments of tending to bodily functions. Good moments of sharing a nap. I can still see them stretched out side-by-side on their old double bed---Mother under the covers, Daddy atop the covers, but holding hands.

The end is inevitable (for all of us) but as her end became more imminent, Daddy was the one who “did right by her.” He kept those vows and was there “in sickness” to help her entrance into heaven be as gentle as possible.

May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. (Proverbs 5:18)

Molly's wedding, 2001------7 months before her death

Ruby Red Reveal…….

8/7/09 ……….but don’t tell Larry. He won’t receive until tomorrow. So many great ideas from so many different folks—thanks for doing the thinking for me! I had forgotten I had a red plate ‘til a blog reader reminded me, would have never thought of duct tape or pomegranates or a list of reasons I love him. Couldn’t use candles or certain colognes b/c “smells” get to his head. Could have added more---just ran out of time & cash. Grateful that so many suggestions were so doable on a budget.
This is the list that will be in his basket which I will present along with his red breakfast. We’ll also have red tomatoes for lunch---a gift from Roger at HHS and a cherry fried pie. This has really been a team effort. Thanks much!!

HAPPY 40TH
August 9, 1969-2009

Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of your youth, (Proverbs 5:38)
(a basket of “ruby” red stuff to commemorate 40 years of love, Liles style)

1. “You are special today” Red Plate (https://redplatestore.com) breakfast in bed---with ruby red grapefruit, toast with Amish strawberry jam and fresh fruit cup w/ Ranier c herries, strawberries and red grapes served with Red Label Taster’s Choice in a “you are special today” red mug

2. Red anniversary card w/ book of King of Hearts postage stamps
3. List of 40 reasons I love you---in red font
4. Red duct tape
5. Red Meat from Folks Folly’s Prime Shoppe
6. Red Truck Wine (I love the label, hope you’ll like the wine) & Avalon Cabernet---robust red with a red label---'cause you already had a beaker of merlot
7. Red Terra Cotta chips w/ Chili’s salsa---you love salsa
8. Rental from Blockbuster for “Hunt for Red October”
9. Office pack w/ red only rubberbands, paper clips, clamps, push pins, Sharpie and pencils
10. Tomato juice
11. Diet Cranberry Splash (2pk)
12. Malco gift certificate for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince---Blood is red and you love Harry Potter
13. Red KOOZIES (2)
14. Pack of red pens
15. Red picture frame for our anniversary “shot”-- A red dot/red tag clearance item----your favorite kind
16. Pair of red scissors for your “area”
17. Red Lobster Coupon
18. Red tie
19. Sonic gift card for your favorite diet strawberry limeade
20. Bright red travel mug & 12 volt plug-in travel mug for am java
21. Red toothpick dispenser---can keep in your car---your kind of gift
22. Frankly Scarlett cupcake from Muddy’s (their red velvet version) and Curbside Cassserole's unbelievable strawberry cake---it's like eating a strawberry shortcake.
23. Red golf tees
24. Red golf swing weight
25. Red “Dotsy” foam golf practice balls
26. Red heart shaped lollipop & gummy Hot Tamales
27. My Homemade mooley grater pimiento cheese with extra bright red pimientos
28. Heavy (you like heavy) red patio glasses (2) for our afternoon soirées in our red Adirondack chairs---looking for a festive pomegranate splash recipe
29. Big Red gum---though I’ll probably chew more than you will
30. Red visor eyeglass clip for your sunglasses
31. Red tree shaped wild cherry air freshener for your car---you’ll hate it but you’ll laugh!
32. Red label powder called Monkey Butt---that will make you laugh too!
33. Red Dr. Pepper Boxers
34. Red handled pruners
35. Red handled trowel
36. Red bristled silicone basting brush for the grill
37. Bold red TARGET gift card
38. Red stuff for your new car---windshield squeegee, dashboard duster, tire brush, funnel, oil spout and shop rags
39. Molly & Corey’s anniversary gift for us, a coconut cake with divinity icing (MY fave) and lots of extra coconut (your favorite) from Sugaree’s in New Albany, MS, topped with red hots in a heart shape and served with strawberry surf ice cream---it’s worth the drive, the renewal of vows…...
40. & it's delivered with a kiss from my ruby red “new “ lips.