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CONTENTS
DIRECTORY
Pastor's
Perspective
Publisher's
Pen
Songwriting
Texas
Gospel
A
Woman's
Point of View
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Aven Grace
Pg 14
Margaret Ann
Smith
Pg 15
Sharon Joyner
Pg 16
Rick Bell
- Pg 22
Jonathan Worth
Cresswell
Pg 20
Scott &
Gloria
Garner - Pg 9
Monica
Edmonds - Pg 23
Clay Howell
- Pg 5
Michael Ayers
Pg 12
Melanie Rainwater
Pg 14
Carma
Grimes
Pg 4
Tommy
Grimes
Pg 10
Billy Hale
- Pg 7
Benny
Greenlee -
Pg 20
Sharon
Mays -
Pg 19
Royel
Clark -
Page 13
Micki
Farington
Editor - Pg 6
Gene
Farington
Publisher - Pg 3
 Margaret Ann Smith |
WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? By Margaret Ann Smith February 2012 |
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WHAT’S
LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? This
is the month when everybody talks about love, and it’s usually
about all the wonderful things that happen between two people who
live in a world that most of the time I cannot relate to!
Everything seems to be so perfect that I have to remind
myself throughout the entire course of reading the article, that
even though that would never happen on my block, God still loves me! So this month, I would like to talk to you about my world,
and how I learned what the word love really meant. My
grandmother was a beautiful woman even on the day she was laid in
her grave at 89 years of age. In
her late 40’s she met a man who was almost 20 years younger than
her, and he fell head over heels in love with her.
Although she tried everything she knew to turn him away, he
would not be moved. They
dated for some time, and every night when he came to pick her up
from work, I would be bundled up in my bassinet in the back seat,
washed clean, bottle fed, and fast asleep, because he would pick me
up from the babysitter’s house and care for me himself.
After they married, he took me into their home and raised me
just as his own child, since my mom was hopelessly addicted to men,
drugs and alcohol. His
mother was a widow, and she moved in with us, became my great
grandmother, took care of me and saw that all the household chores
were done in the home, while my grandmother and grandfather worked
each day. Throughout the years of their marriage I watched my
grandmother treat this man who was so hopelessly in love with her
with such contempt. Every
kind or thoughtful deed I would see my grandfather do for her was
always met with disapproval or criticism, yet he loved her with such
pure love until the day she died. From
the world’s standards he had every reason to leave her and find
someone who would love him as he loved her, but he stayed.
Some years after her death, a younger sister of hers shared
with me that her distain for men was because of a deep dark secret
she had kept for years of being sexually abused as a young woman. When
I was 15 I met a young man who fell in love with me. I say that, because at that time I was clueless about how to
love anyone, including myself.
We married, and I am sorry to say that for the first 10 or so
years of our marriage, he went through pure hell.
I knew absolutely nothing about being a wife, had never
experienced what a good wife should do, and was pretty much mad at
the world for the many things I had already been through as a child.
My mother died from drug and alcohol abuse when I was 15, and
I had been put in many situations growing up that a child should not
have to experience. So
I married into a family where there was only one divorce on either
side of the family as far back as they could trace.
At that time, I was the only person in my family that had not
been divorced, and that was likely to soon happen the way I acted.
Yet, just like my step-grandfather treated my grandmother, my
husband was patient and very long suffering with me. He
continued to love me unconditionally, and in time my life changed.
It wasn’t a pretty process and it took a lot of prayer on
both our parts, but with the help of the good Lord, I became the
wife and women of God that I should be.
If had been anyone else, he would have left, and I would have
been just another divorce statistic in my family tree.
Throughout
the years we have surrendered our lives to ministering to those the
world has forgotten about. Those who are unlovely, and have no idea
how to even spell the word “love.”
Those we ministered to while I was in seminary lived on the
streets, and those over the lastg 30 yeas that we worked with who
were incarcerated. We
could have never known what it feels like to be out of the circle of
“having it all together” if we hadn’t gone through those
trying times ourselves. We
would have never known what it feels like to be unloved and
overlooked, if we had not experienced it ourselves.
So
although I don’t have a wonderful story to share about all that
mushy stuff that Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about, I
can’t help but think that I really do know about love in a very
personal way. You see, God sent His one and only Son into a world
that wasn’t one bit pretty. He
saw people treat each other in a way that was cruel and unlovely,
even though He taught them by His every move how to live.
And even at that time two thousand years ago, He knew those
very things we all would be doing today.
And in spite of it all, He still chose to go to the cross,
that we might have a way to cover our sins.
So
when we look at the cruelness of this story and the sadness of what
Jesus alone suffered for us, we can truly ask ourselves, “What
does love have to do with it?” EVERYTHING, because that’s what
God is; the very definition to what real love is all about!
May you realize today, that you cannot ever do enough for God
to love and accept you as He does.
It is His very nature to love you just as you are, right
where you are. Just
accept that and the rest will come in His good time.
May
you feel His love today and from this day forward as you have never
felt before! Love and Hugs,
Margaret Anne Let us hear from
you oldroadsinc@hotmail.com |
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PO Box 715 • Harrison, AR 72602 • 870-741-1407 • 800-459-9366 |
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