THIS IS NOT A SMALL THING TO ME AT ALL. Cats are one of my favorite creations and I needed a man who loves and appreciates them. I don’t like guys who sneer at them, kick at them, or laugh at them if they accidentally step on their tale. No, not at all would I ever respect a man like that.

I personally have had cats all of my life (except for three weeks) that I can remember. Cats are beautiful! Made by God for a purpose and a plan: and His plan for a cat in my life is for cuddles, purrs, wise and knowing glancing in my direction. Yes, each and every one of them I’ve valued have had their own very distinct and very impressive personality.

Selah.

In the same manner that God loves His creations and the wisdom of why He has, Himself, placed real value on them, I needed a man with a tender heart and wise discernment to know the value of precious lives; each and every one of us!

Selah again!

I also could never marry a man who didn’t love people, respect them, serve them and see the beauty of their creation: each and every one of them. I immediately stopped dating a man who made a “joke” about a certain colour of people. Not funny! Not loving! No: I had to love and marry a man who loves black skin like I do: Asian skin, Native American skin, skin like most of the people in India have and I had to marry a man who would never tolerate evil teachings…

My man was working at a group home for adults who were born damaged physically and mentally when I first met him. That impressed very, very much! That’s another thing: I could never love, less like, anyone, but anyone, who made fun of or torment these kinds of people born broken more than most. Some are like this because their mother drank and got drunk while she was supposed to be lovingly caring them and feeding while they’re were being fearfully created in her womb. Others were born not as healthy physically and mentally just because of broken genes due to The Fall. Whatever the case, the people who disrespect and/or harm these precious and dearly loved souls could not possibly be a lower human being; a sinner headed towards the very pits of Hell…

I couldn’t marry a man who delighted in putting a cat in a paper bag and shooting it like my brother!

I couldn’t marry a man who hated people and called them names who had different skin colour than him like my ex-boyfriend.

I couldn’t marry a man who called Asian people hateful and untrue names like my uncle!

I couldn’t marry a man who didn’t proclaim the value of every physical and/or mentally handicapped man or woman like some people I’ve worked with! (And boy: did I get after them!)

No: I had to marry a man I could love and respect! Granted, we are to love our enemies, but we are not to fellowship with them, emulate them or encourage them in their very wicked ways. That is why God put enmity between us and them.

Selah.

 

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

 

It needed to be said.

My man, my husband of over forty years, was used by God to show me my need to repent and become a child of God. Alleluia! Alleluia!

At this point in our lives Duane is an emergency room nurse. We have raised children, have grandchildren and we are both planning to live long and strong in order to serve God, be a blessing to as many other people as we possibly can and be blessed ourselves. Soon, we will both be sixty-four years old and we know Psalm 91 quite well:

 

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

Psalm 91

 

Thank God I married a man, a good man.

And for any of you looking for love, true love, (not lust, not sexual immorality, not someone who loves himself most, not a liar, not a hypocrite) look for a man of God who loves cats, people of all ethnic backgrounds (we did all come from Adam and Eve anyway) and you will be blessed! Look for a husband who cries at beauty, angers at evil and fights the good fight even to the point of death. Look for a Paul, a Peter, a Stephen. Look for a Duane like mine!

Selah.

 

 

SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS FOR THIS JOY STORY:

 

Proverbs 12:10
The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.

 

Hebrews 12:14
Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

 

Acts 10:32-38
Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’  So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.  You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

 

2 Timothy 3:1-5
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

 

John 3:36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

 

Acts 17:24-28
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.  From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.  ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’