My New "Title"

As of Saturday afternoon, July 23, 2005, I have a new title - “Mother-in-law” and I couldn’t be happier.

Our son, Joe Jr, married his best friend, Suzanne Inez Short. They met about 4 years ago through a youth ministry group called “YOKE.” It is an amazing story how God brought Joe to this day. Suffice it to say that it was very interesting! (I have a feeling that it will continue to be interesting! Or as the minister said, “Let the ride begin!”)

This part of the “adventure” began in his junior year of high school, in the fall of 1999, because he had a learning disability in math and was exempted from taking a second year of algebra and was “allowed” to take auto mechanics instead…

It led him through a long series of events that took him on a lot of twists and turns - all seemingly unrelated, until it culminated in their meeting at a YOKE counselor (“YOKE Folk”) camp and becoming friends - “nothing more” they kept telling me, adamantly! (And I think they really believed that.)

Joe even dated several different girls, and would call Suzanne afterward and tell her about them! I said “Joe!” You just don’t do that! But he did. (You gotta know Joe!)

Then last fall, both his and her eyes were “opened” and the time was right. God’s time was right, and all the “cogs in the wheel” came together and they began to understand what God had brought them to.

I wrote a letter to them and put it in their truck for after the wedding. It began with “This day is far too important to trust to a greeting card sentiment…”

Of course what I wrote was very personal, but in part it said, “God says in Genesis 2:24 (and both Jesus and Paul quote) “a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” (I believe it could also say “a man and a woman leave their fathers and mothers…” just as well, because you do.)

Nothing is more fulfilling and more beautiful; nothing brings a man and a woman closer together (literally and figuratively) than “they two shall become one flesh…”

If you’ll notice in the Genesis account of the Garden of Eden and the fall, a lot of things change after the fall; a lot of things “work” differently, but nowhere does it say anything about the “bodies” of the man and the woman changing. So, that tells me that everything about our physical bodies - every “pleasure point” was the same before the fall as after. And God said, “It was very good.”

My favorite verse on this is 1Cor 7:4 “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” (Emphasis added.)

Dad and I have taken this to mean, ‘Each for the other, and both for the Lord…’ and it has kept our marriage strong, and intimate, for 30 years.”

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I believe that, too. And I pray for Joe, Jr and Suzanne, that their love and relationship will grow steadily deeper and stronger over the course of a lifetime.

I have often heard people say “such and such ‘feels’ funny”, and I thought it was just an expression. However it literally FEELS strange to say “my son and his wife” or “my daughter-in-law…” There is an actual “feeling” there…

But it FEELS good!


And for each of you, I pray that you will allow God to turn the “cogs in your wheel” to lead you to where He wants you to be. I am reminded of the book of Esther - “Who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this…”

Thank you for allowing me to share this very personal moment with you.

Betty