Widow Watching
This week I watched a woman, sitting on the front pew of the church, in all white, attend the funeral of her husband of 59 years. Together since teenagers, this couple had truly been ONE in ways that few people can understand. They raised five children and supported each other as best friends through all of life's changes.
This week I watched a woman, sitting on the front pew of the church, in all white, attend the funeral of her husband of 59 years. Together since teenagers, this couple had truly been ONE in ways that few people can understand. They raised five children and supported each other as best friends through all of life's changes.
As the choir sang words from a song "...good and faithful servant...weeellll done.....good and faithful servant welllllll done....." I watched a single tear roll from her eyes. In a single evening, this 80 year old married woman became a widow. This woman was my grandmother, Mrs. Mae Mansfield. She looked over at me with eyes that bore the inside feeling of her soul....and she said, "My work is now done".....This meant that her job as an earthly helpmate was over and that her husband had returned to his heavenly father.
As a newly married wife of only a year, my heart was humbled and my soul was inspired by this scene. Instantly, I felt truly blessed to be able to witness the conclusion of such a beautiful love story. I realized in that my grandparents' marriage was a true picture of what God has intended for his children through this sort of relationship --True, Unconditional Love --- "Til Death Do You Part".
I spent the week with my grandmother after my grandfather's funeral and listened to her as she relayed words of wisdom about marriage. She urged me to stay with my husband NO MATTER WHAT. She explained to me that I have to have a FORGIVING HEART and she explained that men grow and mature as they get older. She told me about how GOD brought her and my grandfather from poverty to prosperity.
My grandmother reminded me to respect my husband and his accomplishments and to BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY because those words cannot be taken back. She showed me how to mumble things under my breath without letting my husband hear them. And she explained to me that LIFE IS NOT PROMISED and that I should appreciate my husband and what he has provided for me everyday. She renewed the underlying beauty within my own household.
"Widow watching", as I've learned to call it, was one of the most humbling and rewarding experiences the Lord has allowed me to have as He molds me into a better wife. He's not finished with any of us yet. The most important thing is that we keep an ETERNAL perspective about life....and about marriage. If your husband is called home to be with the Lord, what will the Lord say about your marriage? What words will you wish you hadn't said? What actions will you wish you had not taken? What things will you be most proud of ? Is your marriage a reflection of Christ's love for the church?
Wives, let's treat our marriages, each day and every day, as if it were our last.....
-- Please feel free to post comments to Mrs. Nicole M.! Thank you, Nicole!
GREAT post Nicole!! As I read through your experience and that of your grandmother's, I couldn't help but fast-forward 50 years from now and pray I will have done as great of a job at being a helpmate to my husband as your grandmother was to hers. What an awesome job we have as wives! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete-Brittani