I love it when my wife reaches
up with both hands and gently touches each side of my face, showing love in her
own special way. I feel the warmth of
that love when she softly strokes my forehead as I face life’s challenges,
asking with concern, “Does that feel good?”
Even in my aging years, it still melts my heart.
My older brother used to call
her “Katie Lady.” I call her
“Sweetheart.” She tagged me with the
name “Cutie.”
More than once she has told me
that she first loved me when she was just thirteen years old, listening to me
sing in a gospel quartet during the “Eye Rallies” I believe was an outreach of
Teen Challenge, founded by David Wilkerson.
These gatherings were held at a local venue in Walnut Creek, California,
for youth in the surrounding area. I was
sixteen at the time.
About eight years later, through what I believe were God-ordained circumstances, I met this girl again—now a young woman seeking God’s will for her life. The rest, as they say, is history.
After a short engagement of
six months, we married when she turned twenty-two. You might say we were two kids in love who
were meant to be together—God’s providence at work. From that day forward, I have been blessed.
Through the years I have seen
the many ways God has expressed His love toward me through my wife—through her
compassion, kindness, patience, and words of encouragement when I needed them
most. She not only expresses love with
words, but she demonstrates it at every turn in life.
Her godly influence has
remained steady through the years. She
shares wisdom with a loving spirit and has often been used by God to help guide
the final decisions we have made together as we prayed about everything.
In many ways we are
opposites. With her optimistic
personality and my analytical mind, we make a pretty good pair. As the saying goes, “opposites attract,” and
that has certainly been true in our relationship. Where I am strong, she may be weak, and where
she is strong, I may be weak—but together we strengthen one another.
I call her my right-hand girl,
even though she’s left-handed.
She has always been there,
bringing peace and harmony that have saturated my soul over the years. She is not only my helpmate; she has often
been God’s outstretched hands revealing His love to me through heartfelt words
and thoughtful actions.
Scripture teaches that this
love is meant to be a two-way communion—my wife to me and me to her. We are one flesh, made possible because we
are not unequally yoked. We are both Christians, with God at the head of our household. Our common denominator is Jesus Christ, the
Son of the living God.
I am called to love her as
Christ loves the church.
We spoil each other as it
should be. Marriage is not a fifty-fifty
proposition as some might think. I
believe it requires one hundred percent giving from both sides. When each gives their all, God shapes the
relationship into something deeper than we could create ourselves.
As the saying goes, “A family
that prays together stays together.”
The touch between husband and
wife becomes even more powerful when God touches their souls. There is no touch like God’s liberating touch
when He sets us free and teaches us how to love one another as Christ loves the
church.
When God touches a
life—however He chooses to do it, whether through a spouse or in another way—we
are never the same. When we allow Him to
break through the walls of our self-sufficiency, He shows us a better way to
live and to love.
When we learn to give of
ourselves, we become God’s outstretched hands and His voice of reason. Through us, He brings life to those searching
for lasting happiness—those who sense there must be more to life than what they
are living.
With just one touch from God,
a sense of belonging is born. The person
who receives it will never be the same.
New life becomes theirs when God forgives their sin.
There is no other way to have
a true relationship with Father God except through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Written by,
Papa Boyd
