SAMANTHA & ZACK: Another Dillow DOWN!

About 10 Weeks ago I along with several girlfriends started my 2nd Bible Study by Linda Dillow-"What's It Like To Be Married To Me?"
I learned so much and enjoyed being with some of my favorite girls and asking ourselves "dangerous questions"!

Tonight we celebrated COMPLETING our study with a "Couple's Love Dinner"
Each of the girls brought something for our dinner and we served our husbands!
It was a fun night filled with laughter, good food and great company!

At the end I wanted to share with our husbands a little bit of what we have learned the past 10 weeks as well as "sum up" our study and give everyone a little something to take home to remember this special time by.......this is what I shared at the end of our night:

These were the goals set by our group in the beginning of our study:
-to get closer to God
-become a wife of His design with His help
-search our souls and pray
-learn much about ourselves, husbands and marriages
-get in the Word daily and memorize Scripture
-disciple and fellowship with sisters in Christ

~Too often we as women focus on all the things about our husbands we don't like or wish we could change. We know what it is like to be married to our husbands but how often do you think about what it is like to be married to us? If you woke up tomorrow and discovered you were married to you would you be delighted? Or would you be devastated? In this Bible study we asked ourselves this very question and searched Scripture for God's personal answers for us and our marriages.

Each week we asked ourselves different "dangerous questions" which consisted of:
-What's really important to me?
-What does it feel like to be my husband?
-Am I willing to change my attitude?
-What will it take to get close to you?
-What is it like to make love to me?
-Why do I want to stay mad at you?
-Is it possible to grow together when things fall apart?

~"Is there anything more beautiful in life than a boy and girl clasping hands and pure hearts in the path of marriage? Can there be anything more beautiful than young love? And the answer is given. Yes, there is a more beautiful thing. It is the spectacle of an old man and an old woman finishing their journey together on that path. Their hands are gnarled, but still clasped; their faces are seamed but still radiant; their hearts are physically bowed and tired but still strong with love and devotion for one another. Yes, there is a more beautiful thing than young love: old love."~

-Mark and Anita are in the midnight of their marriage. They show us a portrait of the beauty of old love. Mark is a Christian leader and author, yet God has given him a new job, caring for his wife of sixty years. For the last ten years, Alzheimer's has slowly been taking Anita away. Mark is still able to care for her in their home.
Their daughter Judy wrote this poem after visiting her parents.

"The Dance":
Their dance took my breath away.
Heads bowed toward each other face to face.
She in a pink bathrobe her hands gripped on her walker.
He is gently coaxing her to take steps toward him as he guides the front of her walker.
He is guiding her toward her hospital bed.
Placed recently at the foot of the bed that they've shared for almost 60 years of marriage.
She is breathing as if she has run a marathon.
Taking only ten steps from the bathroom where her husband just helped her like she helped me when I was a toddler.
He gently helps her into her new bed.
She looks at him with frightened, childlike eyes and says, "I am afraid."
He says, "Don't be afraid Jesus is here."
He tucks her in while the quietly sing "His Name Is Wonderful!"
She still remembers most of the words of this favorite hymn.
Her voice is still beautiful and she sings on key.
He brushes her cheek with a gentle kiss
And covers her with his prayers.
He then goes to their bed alone.
With his bride in her hospital bed at the foot of his bed,
she soon falls asleep, safely under the shelter of him.

I can't read "The Dance" without tears. What a precious picture of lifetime love. Judy says that the first night of her visit she couldn't take her eyes off them as her dad so lovingly cared for his bride. While cleaning their home, Judy found a note her mom probably wrote two years ago before Alzheimer's stole her beautiful handwriting. On a yellow sticky note she had written, "I'm fading away but Jesus is keeping me everyday."
May we experience the precious joy of "Old Love."
In the beginning of your marriage journey you pledged:
For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.
When we are young, beautiful and vital are ears are attuned to BETTER,RICHER and HEALTH. But every couple will enter into seasons of WORSE,POORER and SICKNESS!
When you are young and strong, it doesn't sound difficult to say "In this for sickness and in health." Health is definitely more fun than sickness, for better is lots more fun than for worse, and we all know that richer is more fun than poorer. BUT WE COMMITTED TO THE BAD AS WELL AS THE GOOD!
Marriage is a journey! We should walk through the seasons of our marriages with a forever-faithful mentality! Brand the words of 1 Corinthians 13:7 on your heart and make it a choice to live them:
"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures every circumstance."

I wanted to give each of you boys a gift that I hope you will somewhere that you will see it everyday to remind you of the Scripture from Song of Songs 8:6-7
"It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame, the very flame of the Lord! Many waters cannot quench love, rivers can't wash it away!"
My prayer for each of you husbands is the flame of the Lord will light a fire in your hearts for you wife and your marriage!

Now to my sweet girls who have been faithful to do this study with me,

encouraged me and prayed for me!

Remember that God doesn't say you have to be the best wife in the world. He doesn't ask you to be successful or popular. You don't have to be like the Super Wife down the street. You don't have to be the best lover or the best anything. You just have to be the "newly designed you" who says, "Yes, God I will ask these dangerous questions. Show me what it's like to be married to me." You have taken your assignment as wife seriously.
DO you know why I respect you? Lots of wives would have put this book back on the shelf and thought, NO way I am asking what it's like to be married to me! But you my friend didn't run from the Dangerous Questions! I think you are brave. I think you are smart. And I think you are creative! God is taking brave, smart and creative you and showing you how to love your unique husband. It doesn't happen overnight-it is a process-but you are on the road, headed toward the goal. You, my friend, are becoming a wife by design. You've chosen to live not by default but by design!
Cling to and live by Psalm 119:30-32
"I have chosen the faithful way...I cling to Your testimonies...I shall run the way of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart!"

Now open your gift!!