Love Letters

Our wedding picture, November 10, 1967

“How do we want to celebrate forty-eight years of marriage?” I asked my husband, Dave.  “I have women’s Bible study in the morning, and in the evening we need to be at church to lead our Love and Respect small group,” I reflected.  Dave looked at me and asked, “What do you want to do?”  I thought a bit, then said we could have lunch out somewhere, to which Dave added, “Maybe afterwards, we could read our old love letters.” 

“Ooh, what a great idea!” I cooed.  “We haven’t seen those letters in all our forty-eight years of marriage!”  So it was settled, and I was quite proud to tell all my girlfriends at the Bible study of Dave’s brilliant, romantic idea.

I’d carefully packaged and stored our love letters in the cedar chest Dave had handmade for me as an engagement gift.  I have always treasured that cedar chest, knowing the love that went into making it.  

The cedar chest Dave hand-made for me as an engagement gift

During lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse, we reminisced about our two years of being apart when he was in Hannibal, Missouri, and about our wedding day, our honeymoon, the mobile home that was our first residence, the state of our finances as newlyweds, Dave’s first job, his employers…

At home, I watched in great anticipation as Dave opened the cedar chest and pulled out one large brown package and one shoe box filled with love letters.  He carried them to our dining room table, and from the brown grocery bag, I pulled out three separate stacks of letters tied with string.  So many letters!  I hardly knew where to start, but thankfully I had sorted them before storing, and we found the first letters we wrote one another after Dave left to begin his two-year term in Voluntary Service in Hannibal, Missouri. We saw each other only twice during those two years when he came home for a visit, and he asked me to marry him in May of 1966 when he was home for a visit.

At random, I picked up a letter I sent to Dave dated May 27, 1966, and was surprised as I read, "Your comments about the poem I wrote made me feel very happy, dearest.  I always have enjoyed writing poetry, and I've often been tempted to try writing a book on the life of a common Mennonite girl -- like me!  Ha!  Say now, I just might write an autobiography someday -- some young person may benefit from my experiences -- especially with you.  Ha!  I could write quite a few chapters about that! Ha!"  (I sure used those "Ha's" a lot, didn't I?)  Ha!  I wonder what poem I had sent him?  I'm sure I'll come across it.  But I digress.  Those words about writing my memoirs are still a desire in my heart, and I have become a writer and a published author of three children's books, with a book of poetry waiting in the wings for publication, and am also currently writing a cookbook!  

Postage was 5 cents!

A valentine Dave sent me from Missouri

What a treat to re-live the memories of those days and remember the details of week-to-week events!  We barely made a dent in those stacks of letters, but I’ll keep them out on the table for a while.  We both noticed immediately the Calvinistic bent to our beliefs, how spiritually law-based we were, and how much more we have grown spiritually!

In one of my letters dated October 11, 1965, I wrote, “Mom said, ‘You know, Dave is a young man who really has strong convictions and principles behind him, and he isn’t afraid to have a strong backbone.”  Our letters were frequently punctuated with “Honey, My Darling, Sweetheart, Precious,” and reminded me of our first love for each other.  We laughed a lot together, and laughing together always strengthens and renews bonds of friendship.

We even found notes we sent each other in our high school years!  Dave quit school in his eleventh year to help his dad on the farm, and completed his education via correspondence school.  I was in my senior year, and we'd just started dating, and I was quite saddened by his decision.  But we wrote notes back and forth, with his twin brother Jonathan (who loved to tease us) playing mail carrier.  We especially had fun reading those long-ago notes!     

Today, I find myself looking at Dave in a little different way – appreciating anew the memories we made and the experiences that have cemented our love and friendship.  I thank God for the rich and fulfilling marriage we share.

My friend Nanci on Facebook wrote, “You both are such an inspiration and role model for so many.  You should write a blog [post] for newlyweds and young couples on what it takes to stay married through so many years.”  

Thank you, Nanci; I plan to do just that!

Copyright © 2015 Elaine Beachy

Philadelphia

Every couple needs the healthy diversion of experiencing new things, and Dave and I chose to visit America’s birthplace of freedom, Philadelphia, October 7 – 9.  I’ll include a number of pictures with this post to give you a taste of what it was like.

Inside the visitor's center, a man dressed as George Washington's Secretary of War, Henry Knox

Another man in period dress - I forget his title

We met John Lionarons who played the hammered dulcimer, a cousin of the autoharp.  After our conversation, we turned to go, and I thought I heard him say, "Praise the Lord."  So I asked him if I'd heard correctly, and he replied, "No, but maybe you heard me thinking it!"  I said, "You're a Christian, aren't you?"  And so began a pleasant conversation about God's goodness.  We bought three of his CD's: The Dulcimer in Old Philadelphia (also featuring the tinwhistle, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and bodhran); Going Home (Hymns on Hammered Dulcimer); and Christmas Is Coming (Traditional Christian Carols on Hammered Dulcimer).

As we walked several blocks to Ben Franklin's Museum, we passed a man playing a saxophone on the sidewalk.

My humorous comment: The first Facebook "Timeline":  Benjamin Franklin's

Popular for writing Poor Richard’s Almanack, Ben Franklin was an extraordinary man! One of seventeen children, he only had three years of formal education.  But through much reading and life experiences, he was given an honorary degree from Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Besides being a writer and publisher, he helped draft the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, founded the first fire department, lending library, post office, and hospital. Ben formed Junto, a special group for young men.  He had many inventions, including the kite, fins for swimming, lightning rod, bifocals, electricity, the Franklin stove, and musical instruments. 

Franklin's musical instrument, the Armonica, that sounds like the edge of a crystal glass when rubbed with your finger moistened with vinegar and water.  There is a handle that turns the cylinder as your finger touches the glass bowl of your choice to produce bell tones.

We got to try the Armonica with color-coded notes.  That was fun!

Ben invented a soup bowl to use on ships, so when the ship listed to one side, the soup would slosh into those little receptacles around the edge.

An electricity invention by Benjamin Franklin

Ben was elected to represent Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention.  He was a statesman, and diplomat to help reach a peace treaty with Great Britain   He was president of an organization to abolish slavery, wrote many tracts against it, and petitioned Congress for the abolition of slavery in 1790, the same year he died.

He was not without faults, to be sure, and had reverses in life.  Not all his inventions worked, and he fathered a child out of wedlock.  But America owes much to the life and times of Benjamin Franklin.  And for that, I am thankful.  He indeed left his mark, not only on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but on all these United States of America.  I'm glad I went to visit the birthplace of democracy.

 

Copyright © 2015 Elaine Beachy

Let Freedom Ring!

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness…The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.  To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world…”

The writers of our Declaration of Independence went on to list a great number of grievances against the king of Great Britain, who was behaving like a malevolent dictator, sending troops against the colonists and making their lives miserable with oppression.  To quote Dr. Ben Carson in his book, One Nation, “If the British government’s thirst for the resources of the colonialists had not grown so large, Americans might never have sought independence…”  As it was, hunger for money and the growth of government led to high taxes and abuse of power by the Crown.

 

Sadly, the same is now true with an American bloated government.  I hold in my hand a small 3 ½” x 6 ½” booklet of forty-six pages, and am amazed to see that it holds our entire Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.  Compare that to just one government health care plan today that boasts an insane length of over two thousand pages!  As our government grows larger, the rights and freedoms of the people decrease and oppression is sharply felt.

Freedom is only defined correctly by the One who gave freedom in the first place.  Does freedom mean I can just do anything I want to without regard for anyone else?  Of course not.  Let us consider that carefully.  That is why we must honor and respect the Word of God in society; His influence must not be lost!

There are those who argue that America was never a “Christian” nation, that it was not founded upon Christian principles with an understanding of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  However, permit me to share just a few quotes from http://www.afn.org/~govern/Christian_Nation.html:

“Most of the fifty-five Founding Fathers who worked on the Constitution were members of orthodox Christian churches and many were even evangelical Christians. The first official act in the First Continental Congress was to open in Christian prayer, which ended in these words: ‘...the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Savior. Amen’.  Sounds Christian to me.

“Later, John Quincy Adams answered the question as to why, next to Christmas, was the Fourth of July this most joyous and venerated day in the United States. He answered: ‘Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?’  Sounds like the founding of a Christian nation to me. John Quincy Adams went on to say that the biggest victory won in the American Revolution was that Christian principles and civil government would be tied together in what he called an ‘indissoluble’ bond. The Founding Fathers understood that religion was inextricably part of our nation and government. The practice of the Christian religion in our government was not only welcomed but encouraged.”

The spiritual climate at this nation’s founding was one of reverence for the law of God. 

To be sure, our country's founding was not without sins of injustice and wrongdoing against it's own citizenry, particularly in the issue of slavery.  Thank God, as people of courage spoke out against such injustice and oppression, the right prevailed to where laws were changed.  And we today should do no less when oppression stares us in the face.  I think of the power of the pen, as Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book I found fascinating and which ignited flames of justice within me as an eleven-year-old girl. I applaud the courage of those stood up for what was right in the sight of God!

We are a nation whose laws should reflect the equity and justice of our Creator.  However, freedom is abused in our country today, where, for example, certain individuals, for the sake of advancing their ungodly political agenda, try to force proprietors out of business because they refuse to engage in practices against their conscience.  That, my friend, is known as bullying! Such “freedom” was never the intent of our founding fathers.  There are bullies of all kinds: social bullies, media bullies, political bullies, bullies in academia and business.

What did our founding fathers mean by freedom?  Does it mean the approval to do anything we want?  Who has the right to define freedom?  I submit to you it’s the One who is the Author of true freedom, the Author who gives all of us an innate desire to be free from oppression. That is exactly the reason our Colonialists pushed back against the mother country of Britain when the king behaved like a tyrant.

Recently, my husband and I took a trip to Philadelphia, the birthplace of freedom for our nation. It was indeed an extraordinary experience to enter Independence Hall (shown below) and stand in the very room where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated, drafted, and signed.

Above is the Assembly Room where our Founding Fathers met to debate the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

Above is the photo I took of Carpenter's Hall where the House of Representatives and the Senate first met together on September 5, 1774.  Of significant note to me is that the first official act in the First Continental Congress was to open in Christian prayer, which ended in these words: "...the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Savior.  Amen".

   

In the Supreme Court chamber of Independence Hall, our tour guide explained that the metal barred cage in which she stood was the place the accused stood when on trial.  The accused was not allowed to sit down; hence the term, "Standing trial."  The witness, who wasn't allowed to sit down either, took his/her place at the upper left location beside the judge's bench.

I couldn't help but feel a profound sense of history as I photographed the Liberty Bell. The 2,000 pound Bell was commissioned from the London firm of Lester and Pack (today the Whitechapel Bell Foundry) in 1752, and was cast with this lettering from Leviticus 25:10: "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."  The Bell cracked, according to widespread story, as it was rung after the death of Chief Justice John Marshall in 1835.  After it cracked, the sound was not the same.

In a way, the crack in the Liberty Bell symbolizes our fractured country.  Fractured because Believers in Jesus have too much preferred to relinquish the difficult and often distasteful job of governing to unscrupulous fellows who have no respect for God and His Word.  Fractured because we have failed to be salt and light.  Fractured because we have been silent or indifferent far too long.  

    

Can freedom’s bell be repaired to ring with a clear sound today?  I believe the answer is “Yes,” however faintly it may have begun to sound.  “Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”  (Galatians 6:9, NKJV) Whether through pen and paper, platforms of social media, public speaking, conversations with family, church friends, neighbors, the influence of the godly is being heard.

 

Even as Benjamin Franklin stood to his feet during an impasse at the Constitutional Convention and advocated imploring the help of Almighty God, let us now not neglect to mention the most powerful force of change today: an appeal to Heaven!  May God pour out His Spirit upon every heart in our nation (especially upon the Church), and turn our country back to Him once again!  I pray that His name will be unashamedly honored and spoken boldly in the public square.  I think of John the Baptist in the Bible who told Herod he was living in sin by having his brother's wife.  John was a faithful voice of righteousness, as have many others down through history.  But if the salt loses its flavor, of what good is it?  If our light is hidden, of what good is it?  Let us be a bold voice for Truth, even if done sitting quietly at someone’s kitchen table. 

Let us remember the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you want them to do to you.  And let us remember the Great Commission from Jesus, the Believer’s Commander in Chief: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:19-20, NKJV) After all, God’s freedom begins within the heart of man—one person at a time.

God bless America, and make her great once more!  Let Freedom ring!

Copyright © Elaine Beachy 2015