There is lots of stuff I could write about life with Bob, we have had some very funny experiences, some very sad, some good times and some not so good. But mostly, I could say life with Bob is pretty ordinary. Life with Bob is probably a lot like life with anybody else; say life with Burl, or life with Tampa, life with Delbert, or life with Sherry. Everybody has a unique experience or two somewhere in their lives.
I wouldn't want anybody to think I was writing about Bob to make fun of him or to "bash" him. I think he is a great husband, father, son, and friend. Bob has always been one of the hardest workers I have ever known. He has always made it possible for me to stay home and be with the kids.
Years ago, 18 1/2 years to be exact, when Bob was cutting cedar out on the ridge, down Clayton Ridge Road, he spent some long hours out there.
He had a bigger truck then and he would load it full up, of course, before he headed home. Lots of days he would say he was going to be home by a certain hour but then would not show up for an hour or two past when he said he would be there. I would be worried sick by the time he would get home, and mad too, because he didn't get home when he said he would.
Bob always goes to work, rain or shine, and one day it had been raining and was muddy when he left to go to work. He told me about what time to expect him home, then said if he didn't get home before dark to come looking for him.
Well, you guessed it, he didn't show up by dark. I could have had my dad to go with me to hunt him but I have been known to be stubborn, and I didn't ask him to go with me. I just got Lynn and Alicia loaded up in the pickup and took off to find Bob. By the time I got about two miles down the road I realized I didn't really know where Clayton Ridge Road was, so I stopped at Bill Hurst's house and got directions how to get out there.
I took off again, and by the time we got to Clayton Ridge Road it was really dark, pitch black, cloudy and threatening rain again.
On the way out there I was thinking, I wasn't absolutely certain that Bob would be on this road. He might have gotten out earlier, or went somewhere else and I might have missed him, and also, I didn't know how far to go down the road before turning around and coming back.
I think I have mentioned this before, but I am scared of the dark. I know it's ridiculous for a grown woman to be scared of the dark, but I am.
We started down that narrow, rutted road, with trees and brush growing right up to the road or into the road on both sides. It was wet and muddy and the road was slippery and rutted. It seemed like we had gone a hundred miles down that road and not seen any signs of Bob or the truck. I started to think that I had gone down the wrong road (this was before the Forest Service had put signs at every road). I was just about ready to turn around and go home and get somebody else to come and look for Bob, but like I said, I am stubborn too, so I kept going just a little bit farther. Finally we came over a little bump in the road and there walking up the road was Bob. I was never so glad to see anybody in my life, and Bob was pretty happy to see us, too. The truck had gotten stuck in the mud and he had been trying to get it out for some time and had finally decided to walk out.
You know, it occurred to me that sometimes we think that God is hard to find. We pray and can't feel His presence like we have before. We think maybe He isn't listening to us and wonder why He doesn't seem to care. It seems like maybe He has forgotten us. When I've felt this way, I've come to realize that God hasn't hidden Himself from me, He isn't lost, He hasn't moved. It is me that has moved. It is me that has hidden myself away from God. Sometimes it seems that we can get so busy with the cares of the world, so wrapped up in day-to-day life, that we neglect to stay in touch with God. I know that for myself, when I put off reading my Bible, or wait to pray until I'm so tired that I fall asleep before I even get 5 words out, I find myself drifting farther away from where I want to be in my relationship with Him.
I have found that for myself, the more I read my Bible, the more time I spend involving myself with church and church activities and mostly, the more time I can spend praying, the closer I feel to my Lord. This works just like everyday life, the more time you spend with someone, the closer you get to them.
I have had people ask me if they had to go to church to be a Christian. I think the answer would be technically, no, you can be a Christian and not go to church. What makes a person a Christian is if you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, (John 6:47). When you admit you have sinned and sincerely ask God to forgive you, He will forgive you. (John 1:12) There are some who are not physically able to attend church, and I know that God understands that. But I know the Bible tells us that we should gather ourselves together to help and encourage each other. (Hebrews 10:24) "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; (25) Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much more, as ye see the day approaching".
It helps me to know that others have gone through the same feelings that I have, and to know how they have overcome something that I may be going through myself. Our church family is there to support and pray for each other, and to come together to worship God, and yes, along the way we manage to have a lot of good times together.
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