WE TRUST IN THE NAME OF THE LORD: FAITHFUL AND TRUE

Family Fellowship Friday

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Faithful and True

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Most families celebrate anniversaries and birthdays. We also celebrate the anniversary of our first date and half birthdays. I'll leave the discussion about half birthdays for another day because today is the anniversary of mine and Steve's first date - November 7, 1970.
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In 1970, Steve and I were both freshman at York College. Most christian colleges have women's and men's social clubs instead of fraternities and sororities. I had just become a member of the Delta Chi Alpha social club and it was time for our fall banquet. Our fall banquet was an opportunity for each young woman to invite the young man whom she had had her eye on.
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Stop with me and ponder these thoughts before I go on... Remember yesterday when, once again, I reiterated how different Steve and I tend to be? He's a Golden Retriever. I'm a Lion / Otter. His favorite color is brown. My favorite colors are red / purple .... maybe the rainbow! He's farm and I'm town. He's Wyoming. I'm Colorado (because it's more populated). He's reenergized with time spent in solace. I'm re-energized by a lively discussion with friends. He's an introvert. I'm an extrovert.
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Now, back to 1970. I had no idea who I wanted to invite to my social club banquet. Yet, I had made friends with a group of guys who were on the college's basketball team. One Friday night, in the student center, they had an idea. They would "set me up" with a "really nice guy" who was on the team "who needed a life". O....kay!?!?
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So, fairly late, one Friday night in October 1970, a group of very tall young men circled this 5 foot 9 inch college freshman girl and waited. You see, one of them had headed back to the dorm to get their shy, studious, introverted basketball playing friend who made it a habit of studying in his room on Friday nights. His name was Steve Sikes - a farm boy from Oklahoma.
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Steve was willing to come this Friday night for the "team meeting" that was being held in the student center. As he approached the circle of his team members, the formation opened to show me standing in the middle. We stood face to face. All other tall dudes vacated. I began to speak...
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My social club was having a banquet... I wasn't sure who I wanted to invite... His team had suggested him... It would be in a few weeks...
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He couldn't! He'd made a promise to himself to not date for his four years in college so that he could focus on his studies and sports. He had made a decision not marry until he was at least 28. In fact, he had never even been on a date at the ripe age of 18. Well, now what was I to do? Oh, by the way, did I tell you that part of my personality is persistent - very persistent...not giving up without a fight...always looking for another option...
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Steve was a little taken aback by the whole discussion, yet he was willing to walk with me. So, we walked outside the student center, down the steps and along the sidewalk toward McCloud Hall (my dorm). I'll never forget the words that finally came out of his introverted mouth. "Well...I guess we could call it a dinner engagement..." Bingo!
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The rest is history:

• during the weeks leading up to the dinner engagement, Steve's older brother Stacy came for a visit...Steve asked him to take me out to see if I would be okay for him to go with
  
• Stacy took me out one night and I passed the test


• Steve and I went out on our dinner engagement for two very opposite people at Nebraska's #1 restaurant: The Chances R in York, Nebraska on the evening of November 7, 1970


• opposites attract


• we dated off and on for three years
  
• opposites attract and then very often attack


• we broke it off at least eight times over those three years


• we married in December 1973


• we were married for over seven years before having children to try to work out a few of our opposite kinks here and there before bringing children onto the roller coaster ride


• today is the 38th anniversary of our first date - so, LET'S CELEBRATE!!!
  

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You ask, "why the post?"
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1. It's FAMILY FELLOWSHIP FRIDAY...and this date is one of our family celebrations: The Anniversary of Steve and Patti's first date!


2. Love always trusts! Jesus is FAITHFUL AND TRUE! Christian marriages should be FAITHFUL AND TRUE ! We have been able to live this out, in spite of our differences. Like the words in FIREPROOF, the movie, by GOD's grace we have been able to live out "never leave your partner behind!"


3. GOD has done amazing things to TRANSFORM two very different people into one! We praise Him!


4. Our TESTIMONIES could be phrased this way:
   

• Steve: "I was a shy introverted young man who stayed to myself. GOD has TRANSFORMED me into a preacher/teacher/counselor who loves people."
  
• Patti: "I was an extroverted lion personality who liked to be where the action was. GOD has TRANSFORMED me into a shepherd/teacher who is content to sit one on one with people or at this computer and blog...think about that one - a lion who is a shepherd."]
• Our Together Testimony: "We were two very different and selfish individuals. GOD has TRANSFORMED us into one couple who are best friends only second to our best friend, JESUS CHRIST."

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CHURCH FAMILY FELLOWSHIP IDEA:


Cardboard testimonies! We have not done it yet at Pitman, but I hope we do soon. We have relatives and friends who are part of a church in Texas who did this recently. I found their video last night on the web. I sat here and wept. May you be encouraged!
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http://www.rhchurch.org/pages/cardboard-testimonies/

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Please leave a comment and share with us some fellowship idea for either home life or church life. Everyone reading this blog would treasure any new ideas from your experience or things that you have seen that you, too, want to try.

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If you have not yet seen the movie FIREPROOF, I recommend that you go soon. It's TRANSFORMING!

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