Wings - Bill Neville

Commentary by T.W. Bill Neville

With my deceased wife of 65 years 85th birthday coming up on Monday, February 1, I'm still not sure how I find myself in uncharted waters. Some might translate my philosophical mutterings, as being, "Up the creek without a paddle," and they would be parenthetically correct. So be it, but if she were alive, she wouldn't be making a big fuss over it. How else, do you think she put up with me for over 65 years. If it had to depend on either one of us counting the years as anything other than just a continuing authentication of our "LOVE" for each "OTHER" and our wonderful "FAMILIES", it probably could have ended when we learned to count to "twenty", just to make sure we still had "all" of our toes.

You might, with due cause, ask how this simplistic acceptance of something so demanding as being married and becoming parents could take place, I remember when we were blessed with an incredible way to look at God, such as: "When God solves our problems, we have faith in "HIS" abilities." and "When God doesn't solve our problems, HE has faith in our abilities." As simple and straight forward, and common sense as these 2 sentences are, they provided the "key" to our successful, marriage's longevity.

The success of this short, "pivotal" prayer in our life also resonated with the "timing" of it's arrival in our lives and marriage. We had 3 of our, to be, 5 sons, with # 4 on the way, when I was informed that my job was being eliminated in 3 months, and I had no short term prospects to be found, in our home town.

That's where the timing on this "prayer" came in, as it not only "woke" me UP, but it gave us the confidence to put our faith in GOD and move the family away from next door to her family, 550 miles away, to a job, with no experience in the available job, and "NO" net under the "HIGH WIRE."

In short, we trusted our lives to God, and broke out of the "shackles" of mediocrity. "ALL" as a result of the "prayer" and the confidence that it instilled in our hearts and minds. It is based on this "life" changing experience that I know that, "If God puts you into the situation, believing in him will get you through it" The "tricky" part this time will be "doing" it alone, since "SHE" was the "force" beneath my "WINGS!"