Fifty four years ago the Farmer and I fell in love and decided to get married.  Actually at 19 and 24 we had no idea of what love really was.  Love is waking up every day and deciding that I still love him, no matter what feelings I may have.  He must do the same.  Maybe he has really upset me and I’m very angry with him but I still decide that I love him this day just as I did yesterday.  Just as I did on our wedding day.  Love in our seventies is different than what we thought in our twenties.  Love now is a grateful heart that we have shared life with the same children and cherish the same grandchildren and we are incredibly thankful to have each other to share our lives.  Many of our friends are now walking and living without their dear spouse.

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” – Mignon McLaughlin

On our wedding day in May we got married at a little country church that we both attended.  The Farmer had attended there his entire life and the Pastor was his uncle.  I moved to this area when I was in Junior High and started to attend the same church.  The road to the church was gravel and it rained on the rehearsal supper.  It also rained on the morning of the wedding and the florist wouldn’t deliver the little bit of flowers we had selected.  My family just picked them up and took them out to the church with us.  Our wedding was simple and I had one bride’s maid and he had one groomsmen.  We served cake and lemonade following the service in the church basement.  The Farmer’s sweet mother made the cake for us and it was perfect.  My mother made the lemonade from real lemons and the mints. 

The Farmer had told me he was going to have his uncle, the Pastor put in our marriage vows that I would always make homemade bread for him.  That is what his mother did.  She raised a hard-working family of seven children and baked loaves of fresh bread every day or every other day.  I fully expected this to be in our vows.  But his uncle was gracious and did not make me promise in front of everyone.  I did however, make all our bread until I took a full time job in town to help make ends meet on the farm.  By this time we had been married fourteen years.  That was a lot of bread making.

Bread making is very healthy for your emotions.  Bread dough does not really care how hard you hit it when you are kneading it.  This helps release many pent up feelings and is much healthier than taking it out on your children or your Farmer.  Bread making has helped many relationships to thrive. 

“Bread — like real love — took time, cultivation, strong loving hands and patience.” — Melissa Hill

In the Bible in John 6:35 it says, Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life. Come every day to me and you will never be hungry. Believe in me and you will never be thirsty.”  He is our nourishment, or sustenance.  Bread is a food that sustains life and without this nourishment our physical bodies will become malnourished.  In the same way our spiritual bodies need the Word of God to fill us and give us life.  Jesus is the Bread of Life.  There is no other way. Jesus is essential for life.  No matter how hard we try we will never be perfect and we don’t have to be because Jesus, the Bread of Life, paid the price so that we can be forgiven. 

Fresh bread smells like a little piece of heaven when it comes out of the oven.  It nourishes while it lasts but it never lasts especially with several hungry children around to feed. Jesus never leaves us hungry but fulfills our need for nourishment.   

Yes I’ve made a lot of bread in my early married life and now in retirement, I am enjoying trying out sourdough recipes.  The Farmer still loves a fresh slice of homemade bread.