They sat together, talking very little, enjoying the night, the rest, and the food as well as the smell of wood-smoke and coffee.”
–Louis L’Amour (The Californios)
“Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.”
–1 Corinthians 7:3 (NKJV)
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It happened a long time ago, way back. Back even before the cowboys, so I’ve been told. There was a day of joy that entered the Baker household–Anna, their first born daughter was born. Now I can’t tell you much about those first 20 birthdays as I was not around, not even thought of, but I’ve know of the next …. birthdays.
I came on the scene to help celebrate her 21st birthday. We had just started dating and for some reason she thought we were seeing too much of each other (just can’t figure that one out) so we agreed to cool it some. Then her roommate told me I needed to get her to the Joust (student union) for a surprise party. I don’t remember how I asked her, probably something like I know we said we wouldn’t see each other so much, but I need to talk to you. It was something like that. Well, it was a surprise, and maybe even more of one, we kept dating. Didn’t let a day go by without seeing each other until I went home for the summer and she stayed in Springfield for school.
There are many things I could say, but I want to bring up something by Louis L’Amour. It might not be part of the “woke culture,” but then again, neither am I. It might not be accepted in some circles, but then again, neither am I.
“This was a woman’s work, a woman who even under stress did not forget her men or the work there was to do. She was not spoiled, this one. She was a man’s woman.”
–Louis L’Amour (High Lonesome)
Wait a minute, “woman’s work”? Absolutely! There is a definite role for a women. There are things that a woman can do that a man cannot. Part of the modern culture wants to make a woman equal with a man and to do so she has to step down. A woman has the role of nurturer, keeper of the hearth and home, teacher of the children at an early age. Those are vital responsibilities, and today we want man to do them; well, he is just not equipped to do so.
So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANNIE! You’re my woman, my dearest, my wife. A person who has rode “shotgun” on all of our adventures. The one who nourished and raised our girls to be God-fearing and God-loving ladies of virtue. You are definitely worth more than rubies or gold. You exemplify the Proverbs 31 wife, but I especially like the following verses:
“Strength and honor are her clothing; she shall rejoice in time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness. She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her… But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.”
–Proverbs 31:25-28,30 (NKJV)
She is a stayer, traveling with me wherever I went from the Rockies, to the East, to the Gulf of Mexico. She went where I went, she lived in various trials and circumstances, and stuck with me through it all. When I was gone, and on my way back home, the soup or beans was always on the stove waiting for me. Oh, and did I tell you that she is the best pie-maker — bar none!