My Love Stories :)

Our wedding day, Sept. 10, 1977

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." 
(Matt. 22:37)





      On Grand Ave. N. in Fort Payne, Alabama, the First Baptist and First United Methodist Churches sit side by side. On a spring night in 1971, while our youth group was playing whiffle ball in the churchyard, a couple of Baptist boys came over to "see what they could see." (smile)
       Being a typical 15-year-old, southern girl, I was playing ball barefooted. At the end of the game, a 6'1", blue-eyed Baptist scooped me into his strong arms and carrying me across the parking lot so the gravel wouldn't hurt my feet. Six years later, I married that handsome boy - the second love of my life.
       Phillip is my number two love only because Jesus Christ holds first place. As a fifth-grader, I realized my need for a Savior and at a Billy Graham film in the DeKalb Theatre, asked God for His free gift of eternal life through faith in His Son, Jesus. However, years and years would pass before I treated Jesus as my first love. 

        In a message to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2, Jesus said, "I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance...but I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember your dear love and repent - turn back to Me!"

        O believer in Jesus Christ, is He truly your first love? Do you go to church, read your Bible, and pray because you're supposed to or because you long to spend time with the Love of your life? Let us spend time with our Jesus everyday and fall deeply in love with our Savior and Lord!



Snippet from Secrets of Shiloh (a Christian Storybook for families):

Their long, unhurried walk ended, to her surprise, at the cemetery behind Liberty Chapel. The Colonel opened the gate of the picket fence and said, “Did you know people are just dying to get in here!”

Rachel laughed and said, “Now that’s funny!”

Col. James led his loyal friend to an older section of the graveyard and pointed out the headstones of his parents and grandparents. Then he suggested, “Let’s go sit over there on that bench for a little while.” Rachel noticed that he looked tired and rather pale, but the old warrior never complained.

 “Rachel, I’ve shared many things with you over the years, but I regret that I’ve failed to share the most valuable part of my life – my relationship with God. Tough, old birds from my generation keep our faith to ourselves, and that’s not good. Well, I want to change that today...Rachel, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died in my place to take the punishment for my many sins. I’ve gotten to know Him over the years the same way you get to know anybody – by spending time together. Everyday, I hear His voice through the Bible, and I talk to Him through prayer. As a matter of fact, I pray for you and Martin all the time, and I’m sorry that I’ve never even told you that. I know things have been hard for you and your mama since your dad died. But, Rachel, life is hard in some way or another for everybody. Don’t become imprisoned by your problems like I was, but live in freedom by faith in God through Jesus – trusting Him in every situation."