When I think of the late, great, Prime Minister of England, I think of his speech to the people of England during World War II. On June 18, 1940, on a radio broadcast, he said: “…THIS was their finest hour”.
My wife has a morbid fear of snakes. So much so, that last year she saw a snake near the fish pond we built in the back yard. This is no ordinary pond; we worked for months digging the ground first with a roto-tiller, then pick and shovel: hard, back-breaking work.
Then we drove 40 miles, one way, to pick up rocks found at the side of the road. Big rocks, flat rocks, round rocks, and some rocks that weighed over 150 lbs. Again, hard, back-breaking work.
However, when she saw that snake – she forgot all the hard work, and decided we should just fill in the pond and grow grass there. Forget all the time and effort we had put into building it. Did I mention: she is afraid of snakes?
Now, this week, my wonderful, sweet, and longsuffering wife, Pat, and I were in the back yard cleaning up the flower beds, and carrying off broken tree branches. There had been a storm and it had broken several branches out of our Curly Willow tree. So I dragged them down to the brush pile in the field behind our house.
Of course, one of the small branches decided he had gone far enough, and decided to stay in our yard.
After I came back, and we were surveying our yard, Pat assured me she saw a snake in the grass. “Get the hoe and kill it”, she shouted. As I had to go close to the snake to get to the hoe in the shed, I thought “that is not a snake”. And said so.
“I said, Get the hoe and KILL IT”, she once again admonished me. Remember she has an unusual fear of snakes.
So I went toward the “snake”, reached down, and flipped it toward her.
THIS was NOT my finest hour. In fact, I could have done almost anything OTHER than that and lived. But noooo, my evil twin won out.
Now, Pastor Pete had just preached a series of sermons about marriage and I had remembered him using Psalm 19:14 in his sermon, and how we should apply that truth to our relationship with our spouses. I only wish I had listened to the Holy Spirit trying to tell me to put it into action.
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.”
Wisdom comes from Knowledge – Knowledge comes from Experience – Experience comes from Mistakes… And I made a BIG one!
If I may change the wording of Ps. 19 a little: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable unto you – my love and my life.”
When I learn to Say and Do that which expresses my love for my wife:
THAT will be my finest hour!
The David Guinn 
