Isaiah 41:10 ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Psalm 139:2 – 3 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Faye and I met at the Portage Chapel Methodist Church in South bend Indiana. I was told about the Methodist Youth Fellowship by one of my friends, it satisfied my need to be around others of my age. I don’t remember any profound messages that helped turn me around, but looking back I identify it as just one step of many that God led me and Faye through over the years that brought Faye and I to this point in our lives. Some months later I went to Faye’s home to ask her sister to double date with me, a friend and another girl. My aunt Sharon Aunt suggested I ask Deane. Deane wasn’t home so I asked Faye, she said yes which ended up turning us into a couple called going steady in those days. After dating over a year I asked Faye to marry me, she said yes and we set the date for October 24, 1953. Faye was 19 at the time, I was still 18, I became 19 August 12, a little over 2 months before our marriage. While dating I found out Faye was from Tennessee but had no clue except for little things like calling a siren, sireen, and phrases like I’ll swann, etc. Our marriage day was great except little things like I thought I was tough, but almost fainted as I waited for Faye to walk down the isle. Thank goodness weddings were pretty cheap in those days, Faye took care of the cake and things like that, I paid to rent a car, ( I didn’t have one at the time) and the honey moon, which was three days. I had $120.00 in my pocket when we left the church. An interesting sign of the times is, we had to dig our marriage license out of our luggage in the bottom of the trunk, before they would rent us a room in West Lafayette Indiana.
We were very young and ignorant we about what we were really getting into. I don’t think either one of us thought past the day we were in except maybe in an idealistic way. When Faye and I look back at the over 60 years of our marriage it is very obvious to us God was with us, upholding us in His hand, and strengthening us when needed. Without God in control no matter what we did, we never would have made it. He kept bringing us back to the path he wanted us on. We kept getting off, but He kept bringing us back.