>“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, ESV)

It is time to sing the praises of Marlys Baynor Loveall. Who, you ask?

The short answer is this: She is the one, after God, who makes my life possible. Anything I have made of myself, whatever that may be, I have been able to because she is in my life.

The long answer would take far more space than this forum allows. Before I met her, I was a man who, by the end of my 20’s, had accomplished exactly nothing and who was not going anywhere worth going. One young woman in whom I had interest in dating, while I was at St. Louis Christian College, was kind enough to inform me that the general perception of me amongst the eligible females at school was that they saw no significant future with me because I didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

By early 1990, I had graduated college and had developed a general plan about life, but wasn’t getting anywhere with it. I was almost totally off-track, surviving day to day, month to month, but not much more than that. When God brought Marlys to me, and me to her, on June 16th of that year, not much changed immediately. But we began to connect more deeply, and sometime in the middle of August, I asked her to marry me (which we did, 10 months later. Very short courtship, longer engagement.) During that time, and as we started our life together, I began to be able to develop focus and direction. I had to — I suddenly had a wife and a 5-year-old in the family. It was time to grow up and be a man.

But it only happened because God brought this wonderful person to my life. Her love, her support, her encouragement, her correction, her putting up with my idiocy and loving me anyway — anyone who likes me at all had best be mighty thankful for Marlys. She is God’s primary human tool for shaping me into what I ought to be.

Tomorrow’s readings: Ecclesiastes 5:1-7; Joshua 6; Jeremiah 1:11-19; Matthew 17