Proverbs 12:4 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband.
Proverbs 18:22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing
And obtains favor from the Lord.
Proverbs 19:14 A prudent wife is from the Lord.
Proverbs 31:10 An excellent wife, who can find?
For her worth is far above jewels.

Patty and I have been married 54 years; over that time, she has been a fantastic gift from the Lord. Patty was raised as a city girl, and after we got married and moved to the farm, she jumped in and worked right alongside me, milking cows, shoveling cow manure, and feeding calves. Then, I became a Pastor of a small church meeting in a public school gym on a very small salary. Again, she adapted and did whatever was needed for us to succeed. She taught kids, helped with Youth group, cleaned the gym and bathrooms, helped me set up chairs, led worship with me, visited people in hospitals and new people to church, cooked meals and delivered them to sick people, typed bulletins and letters and ran them off on the old mimeograph machine.

And even more importantly, she was my biggest fan and encourager as I started preaching, teaching, and leading the church as a total novice. There were days when I would have quit and gone back to farming if she hadn’t encouraged me to keep running the race. She was always the perfect balance between encouraging and admonishing, giving me the carrot or the whip! As I worked very long hours studying, leading, teaching, and building buildings to try and get the church over the hump so we could survive, she never complained once about me being gone too much or me neglecting the family; she just picked up the slack.

She never complained about our small salary or felt sorry for herself for not having many things she would have liked; she managed our money well, and we got by fine.

And most importantly, she was a wonderful mother to eight kids as they came along every two years with a set of twins thrown in. We raised most of our babies before the invention of disposable diapers. Patty kept them well-fed, did homework with them, hauled them to piano lessons, and taught them well about Jesus and how to live righteously.

She is a bit slower now, more aches and pains, but she is still an amazing gift from the Lord, and I am a blessed man because of her.