Free at Home One Year

I am sure that we all have received unexpected blessings. It is always interesting to learn the background to those stories. I want to share one of those today, and I pray it will be a blessing to you. I also pray that it will inspire all of us be blessings to others around us as much as we can. I am sure I have told this story before, but it is well worth repeating.

God gave a wise command to the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 24:5) He commanded them that when a man has taken a new wife that he was not to go out to war or to be charged with any business, but to be free at home one year, so he could bring happiness to the wife he had taken. This command was necessary because it is a sacred time for the new couple to bond together and to enjoy each other as they grew and started a family.

I am not absolutely sure that this verse was the impetus for Chris's Grandma Hallie to bless us as she did, but I believe it was, since she was a good Christian lady who read her Bible. When Chris and I were married a little over 50 years ago, Grandma Hallie came to us, and she said that she did not want Chris to work for the first year of our marriage. To enable that to happen she gave us $1,000, which would have been Chris's inheritance upon her death. Instead, she gave it early to help us in our new marriage.

I was going to Baylor and leading the youth and music at Downsville Baptist Church, but this gift gave us the freedom to spend much time together, to do ministry together, and to grow in the Lord much better than if we had to be working all the time. We were very frugal with that money, and God actually made it last more than the first year. We paid rent, bought groceries, bought Christmas gifts, and paid for car repairs without going into debt. We got off to a great start, and the next 49 years just got better and better. I think this Biblical principle had a lot to do with our happiness.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Deuteronomy 26-28.