CrumbsNSlices

Thoughts that come to me that I would like to share. Great to have place to express them. Sometimes they are crumbs. Sometimes they are larger bites - even slices.

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Location: Edmond, Oklahoma, United States

Saturday, March 08, 2008

He That Findeth a Wife ...

I want to introduce you to a lady you may think you already know, but you don’t know her like I do. She is a singer, a musician, a friend, a champion seamstress, a leader, a wife, a mother, and a “nana”.

She began singing for church services as a young child. You could describe her music style as country gospel. She continued singing church solos for many years.

As a musician, she began to play for church services while still in elementary school. She continued off and on for many years. Upon moving to Oklahoma City after marriage, she met mentors who taught her to apply her keyboard abilities to the organ. Thereafter, you might find her playing either piano or organ at services. (I would be in disfavor if I mentioned her experience with the accordion.) One evangelist made much ado over her playing the organ with her eyes shut during worship services and altar calls.

There was one mode of playing that about did her in, however. At the time, there was a piano and organ played for service. It was never certain whether the organist would be present for service. The pastor would ask Rita to play the organ if the other organist didn’t show up, and the piano if she did. Rita didn’t mind playing either, but the not knowing which was too much for her.

She is a friend to about anyone who will give her the opportunity. That has led her on more than one occasion to be a “listening ear” to women undergoing marital or other problems. She also delights in meeting visitors to our church services and greeting them.

Her endeavors as a seamstress began in high school with a very good home economics teacher. Her school dressmaking project received a grade of 99, because, or so her teacher said, “no one is perfect”. Her sewing continued on after our marriage, with her making most of her own clothes for many years. Soon, that turned to making maternity clothes, and our daughter was born a few months later, and our son a few years after that. When we had been married a couple of years her efforts were directed to drapery making. We bought our first home that fall.

When we moved to a rural housing addition west of Enid, OK she was introduced to Home Demonstration clubs. One of the big events each year for the club was the Garfield County Fair. Soon, she was bringing home blue ribbons for her dresses and other entries. Then, the ribbons became purple. Those are given for grand champions. One year, she for some reason wasn’t planning to enter a dress in the fair. However, one of the club members came by, desperate, because the club didn’t have enough entries. Rita pulled a dress that she had made that year out of the closet , and sent it for entry. That one received reserve grand champion status. The member who had asked her to find an entry, in mock anguish, bemoaned the fact that she had worked for days on a fair entry, and Rita had pulled something out of her closet and won reserve grand champion. Her winning ways led to her becoming a judge at other fairs in surrounding counties.

One more sewing story. A club member who was well known for her sewing was to teach a class on making coats. Rita took the class. Of course, the coats became entries at the next county fair. The class instructor won third place. Another lady in the class won second. Rita’s coat won first place.

She is a leader. While president of the Women’s Auxiliary at the Pentecostal Holiness Church we attended, her auxiliary was named outstanding group in the conference at least twice. She has also led bible studies at Lakeside Assembly of God in Oklahoma City. While at the PH church, she became known as the “noodle lady” by local funeral directors, for her specialty of serving chicken and noodles for funeral dinners.

She is a wife, who puts up with me strangely enough. A mother of our son and daughter. And a nana, dearly loved by two wild young boys who thinks she is the greatest, and who are the recipients of her love as well..

“He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.” Proverbs 18:22

My wife, Rita Arnold