Our marriage was made in heaven

It was a warm summers night, I was hanging out with friends at a little juke joint called Susie’s Corner located on lower main street in the west end of New Albany a small southern town in Indiana across the Ohio river two miles from Louisville Kentucky.

The year was 1959 a balmy warm night in early May and I
like many other teenagers of the fifties was spending my time hanging out at one of my favorite hang out spots.

We thrilled our selves by sharing sodas and sipping them through two straws in one bottle.

On this particular night I didn't have a date with me, I was sitting at the counter enjoying the magical sounds coming from the juke box, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Luis or another rock in roll great was in command of the atmosphere, at some electrifying moment of the night a little petite reddish brown haired girl came shuffling through the door. Her every movement demanding my undivided attention, she stood about 5'2" tall. I was totally hypnotized. Unlike any other girl in my life she captured my heart from the moment I first cast my eyes upon her.

She approached near where I was sitting batted one eye at me with a quick wink she looked at me as if to say that she approved of what she saw.

All that evening we were drawn together like Bees to honey, like two powerful magnets creating a magnetic field around the two of us, seeming to block out

everything and everyone in the room. There seemed to be only her and me floating in our own little world. It was like lightning bolts flashing back at me as I gazed into her beautiful blue green eyes. It was like a voice inside of me was saying this is the one you've been waiting for, this is your soul mate go after her don't let her get away.

From that moment on the pages of our lives began to turn together. Monday night August 17th 1959 at 7:00 pm three short months from the day we met

Mary Ann and I were united in holy matrimony at the Corydon Pike Baptist church a few miles out of town by the Reverend H.B.French.

Ours was a small wedding a few family members and friends from both sides were gathered together to witness and share in our joyous event.

Marking a more memorable occasion for us my cousin Marclee Dukes and Herman (Sonny) Johnson decided to marry at the same time and place as Mary Ann and I, it became a double wedding ceremony celebrated by two young couples very much in love.

From the union of Mary Ann and me, God blessed us with three wonderful sons, and one precious daughter.

Out of this marriage which, I believe was ordained of God, has come seven of the best grand children anyone could ever hope to have, two grandsons and five granddaughters all of whom are now responsible young adults. The blessings of God are still flowing into our lives; the fruit of our loins are still bearing fruit we have been further blessed with four precious healthy great grandsons and three beautiful great granddaughters. Who could ask or dream of more blessed lives than these?

Mary Ann and I are now in the winter season of our lives together, we have left our spring, our summer and our fall seasons far behind, we have turned many wonderful pages since, our first meeting and the union of our souls in 1959.

Our days together have been good and God’s mercy and blessings have filled our lives, so much that there is not time or paper enough to count them all and write them in a book.

However we like all others have had some troubled,sad,sick and not so very good days to endure as well, but our great, loving and merciful God has  fulfilled His every promise to us, by His grace and power He has caused even the bad and ugly days to turn out for our good in some way or another.

The conclusion that I have reached from all of this is that our marriage truly was made in heaven, blessed wonderfully of God who created us and brought us together to fulfill his purpose in us.

God has surely given us life in abundance and joys without measure, so that I can say,

1. Psalm 103:1
   Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2. Psalm 103:2
   Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

Until deaths do us part was and is our vows to each other from the beginning of our union on this earth.

God’s promise our hope of eternity together in heaven will soon begin another phase of our lives together.

I was 17 years and Mary Ann was 15 years when we met and married.

I am now 71 and Mary Ann is 69 has not God given us rich full lives together?  You be the judge!

The night my life was changed forever

 I was a young man 20 years of age I had been married to my wife Mary Ann for the past three years we were starting our family with our first born Charles Wayne. I was a man of the world desiring all I could get from the world of things and pleasures it had to offer.

 I ran away from home at the age of thirteen leaving the safety and comfort of my parent’s home to find my place in this great big world I wanted to make my mark in it. I had decided what I wanted from life and was going after it. Like the words in the old Faron Young song my desire was to live fast, love hard, die young and leave a beautiful memory.

By my physical appearance I looked older than I really was I did not have any trouble finding work in restaurants as dish washer and bus boy to support myself, in the 1950’s  if you looked old enough there weren’t many questions asked. I could frequent any bar or dance hall that I wanted to enter without ever being asked to verify my age. I met Mary Ann when she was a little past fifteen and I was seventeen we had been dating for three months and on Saturday night in early August 1959 at a little neighborhood bar with my cousin and her boyfriend present and me having more to drink than I should have I suddenly dropped to my knees before all the witnesses in the place and asked this little girl of 15 years to marry me.

M y cousin’s boyfriend thought  I was joking, so he followed me and popped the big question to my cousin, needless to say the girls thought we were a bit too drunk to know what we had just done. We got to our feet and resumed our evening of fun. However on August 17^th 1959 the seriousness of our actions that Saturday night was confirmed by a double wedding at the Corydon Pike Baptist church New Albany, Indiana, when two young couples so much in love with each other said “I Do”.

After three years together our marriage was in serious trouble, because I didn’t know how and didn’t want to settle down to a family relationship. I was in danger of losing my young wife and baby, because I couldn’t stop drinking and partying with friends of the world. It was at this time that the Lord God began to bring deep conviction of my sins to my heart and I began to realize that if my marriage was going to be saved there would have to be a change in my life.

Following is my testimony of the night my life was changed forever…

The night my life was changed forever.

In the week of December 9,1961 my phone was bombarded with calls from my wife’s sister n law, Margie Carroll pleading with my wife and I to join her in church, we had always turned her down by saying maybe next week, but this particular week she was very persistent with her invitation, so much so that at the latter part of the week my wife and I felt such a strong urge to go to the Saturday night service just to get her off our backs my thinking at this time if we visit her church just this one time maybe she will leave us alone for a while.

Saturday night came and true to our word we got dressed in our best clothing and drove to a little white block building situated on North State Street in New Albany, Indiana it was a street mission pastured by a woman named Lillie Ogden who was an ordained member of the Methodist church she had established this little house of worship for the common folks and the street people of the city to have a place of worship.

Somewhere in the back side of my mind I was thinking the service won’t last long and we will be out of here and probably never come back.

Mary and I took our seats in the very back pew usually called the sinners pew I thought that I could crunch down and maybe I wouldn’t be noticed back there.

My body was there sitting on the pew, but my mind was far from where my body was seated, you see my normal activity for Saturday nights was leaving my wife and baby at home heading to the city’s down town bars for a night of drinking, dancing and whatever else I could find to do with my friends of the world much of it too ugly to speak of, so at this time I will leave it un- said.

Getting back to the little church I found myself seated in, the time was around seven o clock pm the service was called to order and everyone was asked to pick up a hymn book and join the singing well this was new for me so with hymn book in hand holding it high covering my mouth I pretended to sing.

After a few songs about Jesus and his love the speaker for the evening took the pulpit a tall Black haired burley man they called Brother Earl Doan he pastured another Methodist church in the city. Brother Doan begin to speak and I thought it’s about over he won’t talk too long, but his sermon seemed to take forever I can’t tell you what exactly he said, but it seemed that every word was directed to me telling me what an awful sinner I was and that Jesus loved me.

My heart began to beat rapidly inside my chest as I gripped the pew in front of me with such force that I believe if I could see that pew today there would be imprints of my fingers still imbedded in the hard oak wood.

After what seemed to me to be an eternity brother Doan closed his sermon and gave an alter call for all lost sinners who wanted to repent of sin and come to Jesus.

As I said I can’t remember the message but I do remember the closing song “Who at my door is standing”. I knew a voice that I had heard many times in my life was speaking saying this is your last opportunity  sinner harden not your heart, don’t neglect so great a salvation if you turn away tonight it’s your last call.

I pushed his still small voice aside and held the pew with such a tight grip that I believe if someone had tried to pry my hands off it they would have taken the pew with me.

One of the good things about sitting in the back pew is it was close to the door and my wife and I could slip out quickly, before any of the church people could reach us.

We got in our car and drove silently home, after reaching our home I still had not silenced the Spirit of God who was speaking to my heart, I sat down in the living room and tried to get my mind on other things, but nothing silenced the voice I was hearing, finally I could not stand the conviction any longer I got up from my chair and went into our bath room locking the door behind me, while my wife was in the kitchen doing something. I kneeled in front of our bath tub and began to cry out to God in my most miserable condition, saying O God if you are real, if you can forgive my sins, if you can give me a new and better life here I am Lord prove to me you are real please change my heart, forgive me of sin, give me a clean heart. I must have been exceptionally loud in my crying and prayer, because Mary wanted to know what was wrong I needed to unlock that door and come out of there, she was getting very concerned about me. After what seemed to be a very long time my tears stopped and I had a peace like I had never had before his voice spoke to my heart saying “you are forgiven my son, you are clean now go and sin no more”. When I came out of that bathroom I knew I was a new man nothing would ever be like it was before, I was a new creation in Christ Jesus, God had proven to me that indeed He is Almighty God and that He could do, and did do in me what the preacher had said he could do.

That night was December 9^th 1961 I was born again of the spirit of God the old Charles Elmer Lee was gone the new Charles Elmer Lee began a new and better life in Christ Jesus. It has been 49 years now and I still live my life in Him. Many times over the years He has picked me up when I have fallen, He has forgiven me when I have messed up and sinned, He has delivered me from and out of many troubles many of them  I brought upon myself, some from the devil and some from wicked humans, God had given me, Mary and our family many miracles in our years of trusting in Him, He has healed our bodies of deadly sicknesses He has allowed us to live ,when the devil would have killed us and He has provided everything that we have ever needed to sustain us and keep us in the way we go.

Yes truly my life was changed forever that glorious night in December 1961 no one that has known me and how I once lived in all my wickedness can deny the change they have seen in me over the years. Those who know me now cannot deny the peace, the love, the hope, the faith and the strength they see in me in these troubled times we are living in.

It is not me you see, but Christ Jesus who lives in me, in Him I live and move and have my being!

In and by and through the Lord Jesus Christ I live forever! One day I will leave this temporary home and move into my eternal home built by the hands of God for those who love Him and are called according to his purpose.