The Hardest Working Man I Know

For the last couple of weeks, our Pastor has preached on the Biblical roles of men and women. Yesterday morning, his focus was on the roles of the man, citing three areas of leading, working,(providing), and keeping (protecting). His text was from Genesis 1 and 2, the Biblical mandate, the God-given role for men.

Culture, as always, wants to compromise and confuse what our Maker and Owner has declared about His creation. You know, when your Panasonic TV wants to "act-up" just as March Madness is about to begin, you go and find your owner's manual, right? Or, in our case, recently, when I remarked to Danny that the point guard, as she approaches from the left side of the screen, is all blurry, he knew to call Tommy TV man, who knows the mechanisms of television inside and out. Well, rightly so, God Who made us, has given us an Instruction BOOK and therein we find what works best for us. He made us, He knows us, He knows how we tick, how we think and He lays out a pattern that is not to restrict us, but to bless us! Oh, that we His people would learn that, love that, and live that!

Pastor focused on the second of those three of leading, working, and keeping in his sermon yesterday  and made this statement, concerning work. "My Daddy, who is now in Heaven, was the hardest working man I have ever known.." (Now, his sermon covered all the bases - how God put into men's hearts a desire to work and provide, also how you can be overworked and spend no time with the family...etc.) but my blog stems from simply this. When he made that statement, my mind immediately asked "Who is the hardest working man you know, Deborah?" And , with no hesitation, I said, "I am married to him!"

Danny and his sister, Ann, were working around the house at a very early age because their Mother had alot of back problems when they were young but around the age of 10 or 11, he was filling customers' gas tanks and cleaning the bug "squash" off their windshields at his Daddy's service station in Roswell. The glass shined when the people drove off because he said his Daddy taught him that a job worth doing was worth doing right!

Later, his Daddy taught him one of the hardest jobs, I believe that there is  and that is putting new roofs on houses, which still benefits us today. Danny was roofing in the hot summer sun when he was around 12 or 13 years old. At first, he said, all he could do was carry the shingles up the ladder ( no conveyors then to help with the heavy load) and then by observation, he learned the right technique to nail the shingles to the house.

When Danny graduated from high school, he attended Pickens Technical College and studied refrigeration, heating and air conditioning. When we married in 1970, he was working for a heating and a/c company and I remember the long hours he put in and the calls late at night or in the wee hours of the morning when it was his turn at rotation to be on call. Before the children were born, I used to go with him and it's a funny story we recall today that once a sweet, elderly lady asked him would his daughter like to come in since it was so cold outside. When I was 18, I didn't consider that a compliment but would gladly appreciate that assumption today although the graying hair will prevent that from happening. Perspective does change as we get older and hopefully, wiser, doesn't it?

When the children were small, Danny set out on his own and reentered the roofing business. With the start of his own company, he worked long and hard hours. There were times that we would take supper to him, allowing him a couple of more hours of daylight to nail some shingles down. His hard work and commitment to provide for his family assured his future of being a top notch roofing contractor and we thank God for His provision. A man named Agur in Proverbs 30:5 prayed this "Neither give me poverty, nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me."  And that is where Danny and I have always lived and contentedly so. Even this day we are in now, with the economy not so good and the housing industry definitely affected, I find myself praying most days -"Lord, give us enough work to pay the bills and to be able to be a blessing to others should they need our help."  I don't need a bigger or better house (nothing wrong with that if it is within ones' means), I don't crave a fancier car, designer clothes; just enough to pay those bills that keep coming in even when the paychecks don't.

I thank my husband that he has always worked hard to be a good provider. Other than working for a year at an insurance company when we were first married, I have always been blessed to stay at home, which I so badly wanted to do when the family grew by two. It was my desire to hear that precious brown-eyed boy's first word and that beautiful blue-eyed baby girl, I wanted to watch her first step and pick her up when she fell and encourage her to go again. I didn't want to hear about it - I wanted to be there and I didn't mind living "smaller" materially wise to be able to enjoy every moment with them. It goes by so quickly!

In about a month, Danny will be sixty. ( He's ok with me telling you that- women seem to be more sensitive about the age thing. I never could figure that because I figure if you know I have a granddaughter almost ten , then the assumption would be that I am not 30?)  In November, God willing, we will have been married for forty years. I think at this age, we begin to think about the probability (unless the rapture occurs first), that one of us will have to go on alone at some point. Yes, I know, some of you detect alot of melancholic in this girl but don't worry, I don't live sadly, quite the opposite, I know the joy of the Lord but I am a thinker and I do live with a realistic approach to life. If I had to face a small part of my remaining days without him, I would miss his companionship. These days, there is nothing I like better than to climb into his black F250 and go with him to make estimates, listening to his Roadhouse country as we ride along. I love the evenings as we watch the man's man, Matt Dillon, and remark to each other that this episode ended the same way it did the 1st and 30th time we saw it. Speaking of his ability to work, I would have to get a phone book out for repairmen, something I have never had to do being married to him. He puts new blades on lawn mowers, he changes compressors on a/c units, he replaces broken pipes under the sink, he puts new belts on dryers, he works under hoods of cars, he patches roof leaks, he builds tree houses for grandchildren, even with a skylight in the ceiling.... do you get the picture? Last spring, he tilled a garden spot with the old time tiller and I wasn't happy as he sweated to do that because his health isn't what it once was but the delicious veggies were appreciated in the late summer and even now, as they are in jars. Last week, I went to turn on the dimmer switch in our family room and we think Landon , who had been here the week before, MAYBE, had stripped the "gears" in it, if you know what I mean? (He's four, does that better explain it?)  Well, off to Home Depot Grandanny goes and returns with a new dimmer switch. As I held the flashlight for him to see the wiring mechanism, I remarked, "I didn't know that you had to reconnect wires and all of that stuff." Danny says, "Deb, did you think the switch just sits on the wall?"  "Well, yeah?"      I asked, "How did you learn electrical work, Danny?" to which he answered that you learn that in refrigeration classes. Who knew?   When I saw a spark when two wires met together (WARNING -NOT TO DO IT LIKE THAT!) , I said, "Shouldn't you have cut the breaker off?"   "It's fine, dear wife, " and sure enough in about 15 minutes , I had a new dimmer switch with a glowing light to let me know where to find it in the dark, he explained. WHAT A GUY!!

That paragraph was kinda long, wasn't it? And you may notice that this blog is a little different from my former ones. The intention is definitely not to make any husband who doesn't have this "jack of all trades" mentality feel any less. Pastor Scott covered in yesterday's sermon that although our gifts are different, some are mechanical, some are behind a desk, some are caring for flocks, which is very hard work , by the way, for you who think pastors do nothing. Are you kidding me?   But my intent, in these few, hopefully understood words, is to pay honor to whom honor is due and to thank my husband for being the hardest working man that I have ever known!  I thank you, Dan, and I love you, my husband and my best friend. 

Yours forever,  Deborah