FOOTSTEPS

As we trace the steps of Jesus,
May ours also be so plain;
'Cause the little ones who follow...
May be walking in the rain.

For the world will cast its shadow
As they walk along the Way;...
Like it did upon our Savior
On that dark and hateful day.

For that day to Him was grievous,
Plain to all who were there to see;
But that day turned in all glorious...
For the likes of you and me.
©Edna L. Ingram

COMMITMENT IN MARRIAGE. By Wendell Ingram

My favorite picture of Wendell & Kathy.

 

 

COMMITMENT IN MARRIAGE

 

There was a couple who had two little children. They lived on a farm and it was in the early 1900's. She usually didn't go to town with him on Saturday afternoons, because of having to get the two little ones ready and it was not an easy chore keeping up with them while they were in town, and buying what they needed. So most of the time her husband went alone and did the shopping.

 

One Saturday afternoon when he went to do the shopping, he came back later that night, and then every Saturday he came back later and later.

 

One of her neighbors told her one day that he was going to the dances and dancing with a lot of the young women there. This young wife and mother didn't know what to do about it and her neighbor told her to get herself fixed up and when he came in from the field to be ready to go to town with him.

 

She said that she couldn't...she had those two little children to take care of. The neighbor pleaded with her to let her come get them and keep them that night. So that is what she decided to do.

 

The next Saturday when her husband came in from work at noon, she had his lunch all fixed and she was dressed to go. He asked her what she was dressed up for. She said, "I'm going to town with you today."

He said, "You can't...What about the babies?" She said, "Our neighbor is taking care of them all night." He got really mad.

She said, "I know you have been going to the dances and I am going to go to the dance with you."

 

Her husband said, "Wouldn't you be a pretty thing to take to a dance?"

Can't you just imagine that remark felt like a knife cutting through her heart?

She swallowed her pride and the lump in her throat and said, "I'm just as pretty as the day you married me...and if you are going to the dance, I am going with you."

 

He just went back outside and harnessed up the team and went back to the field. He never went to the dances again.

 

They stayed married and raised those two children plus they had 6 more children. They all married and raised families of their own and stayed together. None of their 8 children were ever divorced. Most now have grown old and passed away.

 

Now, can you just imagine what would have happened if this woman had let her pride hurt her enough to end their marriage. How many lives would have been changed? Commitment in marriage meant something to her. It needs to mean something to us today.

 

This lady was 90 years old when she related this story to us. I thought she was just telling this for her own benefit...maybe she was still hurting from it, but I realized later that she didn't tell it for her own benefit. She told it for the sake of myself and my wife.  We had at that time, just recently married and she wanted us to know the meaning of commitment in a marriage.   

 By Wendell Ingram 

HOW I MET BOBBY

 



The year was 1955, the middle of May…the morning of our high school class trip. My best friend, Melba Ingram had her brother bring her to my grandma’s house. He had just come home from serving our country in the US army. My grandmother lived across the street from the school building and we were supposed to be on the school bus by 7:30 a.m.

 

That was the first time I had met Bobby, and it was only for a few seconds…long enough for Melba to introduce us and get her stuff out of the car. Melba’s birthday was later that week and Bobby told her that he would take her and a girlfriend to the movies for her birthday…if he could choose the girl friend. She said ok…and that was the beginning of our ‘friendship.’ That ‘movie night’ Bobby asked me for a ” real” date.

We were engaged three months later, on Bobby's birthday August 20, 1955... and in another three months we were married. This next November we will have been married 58 years! It seems like such a short time. I’d opt for 58 more if it were possible.

Another part of this saga.  Exactly one year earlier, on the last day of school, one of Bobby’s friends that wrote to him while he was in the army had just gotten married and she brought his picture and gave it to back to his sister, Melba. Melba asked me if I wanted it.  I thought that was kind of strange…since I didn’t know him… but he was just sooooo handsome, so I told her yes.  The picture above is the one she gave me.  I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would get to date him…much less marry him!  This was about a year before I met him. I took it home and put it on a table in our living room.

When Bobby came and picked me up for our first date… he was very surprised that I had a picture of him on my little table!  It had been right there for a year.  I hadn’t even thought of it that night. So I explained to him why I had it. Happy and funny memories! We laughed about this last night…again! I kept this picture until we married and then his mother wanted to trade me an 8 X 10 for the 5X7…because she didn’t have a frame to fit the larger one.
 
"Now…many happy years and two children, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren later …life is still wonderful!  By God's wondrous grace and His guidance and providence, we are where we are today!

Late Note of August 2013: When Bobby was in from the army, there was farm land with two houses for sale about 15 miles South and he wanted to go look at it. His dad told him he needed to go to Ada first, so Bobby took him to Ada. When they finally got to go look at the farm, another man and his wife were there looking too…and they purchased it. 

So…if Bobby’s dad hadn’t needed to go to Ada that day…I might never have met Bobby. He would probably have bought that farm and moved over there and worked it…so thank you Grandpa Grady Ingram for that. Bobby didn’t need to farm anyway. He needed to be a barber.  His career was also by God's grace because he was always available to his children whether at work or at home.

 

Picture courtesy of Lois Stone

 

 

Just a glimpse in the night

While the moon’s shining bright,

Brings me thoughts of the ones up above.

They have fought the good fight

Standing up for the right....

And they did it because of His love.

©Edna L. Ingram, 08/2013
 



VACATION 2013

 

 

Vacationing with Wendell and Kathy is so much fun!  I hate to tell this on me and Kathy but it is too funny to keep to ourselves:

We spent 3 nights, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights in Springfield, to spend time with Angela and then left for St Louis early Monday morning.  Getting there, we looked for a motel first thing and Wendell went in to one to get the price and info on it and in the meantime, Kathy is looking on the internet at a site where you can get it cheaper. She found that same motel and it was $40 something per night.  Wendell came back out and of course it was $60  coming in right off the street.

 Kathy had planned on going in and renting and leaving Wendell outside, cause they would recognize him.

We discussed it a bit and then decided to just go look at another one.  Kathy and I went in this time.  She went with the guy to look at a room while I waited…cause it was downhill and I don’t walk too well going down hill.     Well they came back and she said the room was fine, so we told him we’d take them for 2 nights. 

We paid with our credit cards and went back to the car to tell the guys.  The first thing they asked when we told them we rented them, was:  “How much are they?”

Kathy and I just looked at each other.  We had forgotten to ask.  lol lol   So….we looked at our receipt…and they were about 67.00 each.  It was soooo hard to believe that we hadn’t thought to ask the price…especially Kathy, since that was the big deal on the other one.

Here is Wendell’s made up conversation that we had with the motel manager:  “How much for a room?   No, we won’t take it for that.  Charge a little more and we’ll take it.”
Anyway we all had a good laugh…not to be our last one on that trip either.





 

During my lifetime at certain points I tended to read certain Scriptures and not think too much about them, but at the various seasons of life, some tend to have very special meaning. Here are my favorites for the seasons of my life.  Precious Promises!

1. Early Spring of Life:
Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

2. Late Spring of Life:
When we first learned and obeyed the gospel…(About 11:00 one night back in 1956)   Luke 1:32-33: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” My overall favorite!

3. Summer of Life:
When our children were growing up: Proverbs 22:6: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

4. Autumn of Life:
Romans 8:37-39 “…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

5. Winter of Life:  (Favorite at this point in time.)
2 Corinthians 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
©Edna L. Ingram

Have you ever eaten an icicle when you were a child?  We did.  We broke them off the house and enjoyed eating them when they are clear as crystal.  Sometimes though, they had been made with muddy water, like forming off the running boards of cars, and muddy ones are not very good to eat.

 

Kenny Ray had a devo tonight about icicles and built his devotional around how icicles AND how our influence is built drop by drop...a little at a time.

 

I also want to consider influence and how it affects our little ones day by day and drop by drop...as they are growing up.  It takes approximately 18 years to form a child into an adult person...and each day we are either a good influence on them or a bad influence. 

 

Day by day and drop by drop, we are either influencing them to be good moral people and faithful followers of God or we are just letting any kind of environment form them.  It happens gradually...whether we are doing a good job or a bad one for them...so gradually that we may not see the evidence until it is too late.  We need to be thoughtful and caring parents in order to form them into what God wants.   ©Edna L. Ingram

 

 

AN AMAZING LOVE LETTER

If someone loved you dearly...and wrote you a long, long love letter, you would read it with great anticipation. You would read it over and over and over again and cherish every thought...every word.
 
NO! You would only do that if YOU loved the SENDER dearly!

It's been proven to be that way for a long, long time and still is proven today with what we call The Bible.