HOME truth - Marys or Marthas?

Yesterday I took a few moments to be Mary instead of Martha. Yesterday I sat and listened as I learned of the stories of 3 important women in my family. Yesterday without intention I was educated in the ways of real love and real romance and what that even means. Yesterday I made some commitments to myself and to my future husband that he doesn’t even know about yet.

Gear Up.

I thought he said she wasn't cut out for this?

My Aunty has been married to my Uncle for 25 years and they have 6 children. Yesterday she unfolded to me the course of events that led up to that romantic proposal on horseback. She told me about the day my Uncle called her and broke her heart. He said he didn’t think it was going to work out because she wouldn’t be cut out for farm life (creep). Is that really the best he could come up with? She had waited for him on his mission for a year and a half! AND they had only met 3 times before that! My Aunty told me that she had then left her family, her job and everything she owned in America to come to New Zealand and “see what happened” (there wasn’t even a proposal at that stage!) That is some serious faith. My Aunty has been married to my Uncle for 25 years and they have 6 children. Her name is Esther and she knows what it means to have real love. Love that isn’t deterred by the vast separation of oceans or seas. Love that doesn’t shrink in the face of trial or hardship or less than convenient circumstances. Love that motivates you to be perfectly “cut out” for something.

My Aunty has been married to my Uncle for 30 years and they have 4 children. Yesterday I learnt of the course of events that led to her wedding to a farm boy she met while at a farming convention with my Grandparents. Sounds very country I know. Firstly my Uncle wasn’t even that interested in her, he was kind of “having an association” (Grandad’s words not mine) with another girl at the farming convention. Heaven must have smiled on him as he somehow got another chance to win my Aunty’s heart. He was “in the area” on farm business and decided to call into my Grandparent’s house.  They went behind the side of the house and kissed ;) But my Aunty made it very clear to him that she would be having a Temple marriage. What’s a Temple marriage? My Uncle was not a member at the time. He went away and took the missionary discussions, eventually he joined the church. She had that Temple marriage. She was not settling for anything less. The right person, at the right time, in the right place. My Aunty has been married to my Uncle for 30 years and they have 4 children. Her name is Elizabeth and she knows what it means to have real love. Love that will sacrifice for righteous desires. Love that is sanctioned by the Lord. Love that knows exactly what it stands for and what it is founded on.

My Grandmother was married to my Grandfather for almost 60 years and they have 6 children. Yesterday I learnt from my Grandfather exactly how he won her heart. He was a country boy with not very much to offer and she was a beautiful city glamour Queen with fancy hats and shades of lipstick. It would seem they were worlds apart.  They wrote to each other twice a week for 6 months! They didn’t have the convenience of skype, email or text. They didn’t even have a car then. Grandma told her family that she would “probably marry him” long before her and Grandad ever talked about it. When it’s right, it’s right. They may have been worlds apart in some things but not in the things that mattered. Their goals were set on real happiness. On raising a family in love and righteousness. Grandad said they had very little but there was no way that G’ma was going to work. They would make do, or do without. She was to be a mother. THE mother. They both faced forward to the future and prepared to press on side by side with the little they had. My Grandmother was married to my Grandfather almost 60 years and they have 6 children. Her name is Esther Mary and she knows what it means to have real love and real romance. Do you know they never had an argument – Grandad said it was because she was prepared to compromise. I think it was because she knew what mattered and what didn’t. She knew what it took to live happily ever after. And they did.