Some call him Tim

March 8th, 2009 Tim Posted in SevenLakes Info |

(by Nancy) What do you say about a man you meet under a moose? Someone who freely quotes Monty Pythons’ Holy Grail and Life of Brian (and no, I don’t approve of the latter movie’s ending)? A husband who grocery shops and cooks. Who regularly embarrasses his 13 year-old daughter on the way to Shift at CrossPoint SevenLakes with “success!” (She might slap him if he said the Klingon translation “Kupla!”).  He spent Labor Day weekend building a coop for her quail (but facetiously complains about those “noisy dawgs”).  When our HomeTeam had a birthday party for my 43rd, he put 19 candles on the cake because that’s how old I was when we met (under the taxidermied moose)…and everybody said “aww!” He brews his own beer (he makes a mean porter and IPA!) and taught our son how to fish. Right now Tim’s helping him pick music for his elementary school talent show audition.

This June will mark 25 years since we met and 20 years of marriage. We’ve been through ups and downs but he’s still my favorite person to spend time with and the main one who can make me laugh. I think it’s fitting that February 8th we participated in “officiating” vow renewals for other couples and then renewed our own vows with the Chessers leading us. Tim summed up that morning by saying “that’s the most fun I’ve ever had in church.”

A couple of years ago he picked out our adopted dog online from http://www.cap4pets.org/ : a part staffordshire terrier, part greyhound with handsome brindle markings. She’s protective, affectionate, energetic, fun-loving and a little quirky. They have a lot in common.

When he proposed marriage I threw him by responding “I think so!” but he married me anyway. I knew I’d been greatly blessed when he took care of me in the hospital for a week during our engagement (when I was sick with a viral illness). Someone who sticks by you while you’re throwing up and getting an IV put in is a definite keeper. He has taught me what it means to be loved.

When we married he was 27 and quite self-sufficient. One of my top regrets in life is that, one of the few times he really needed me, after his dad died, I wasn’t really there for him. He has taught me what it means to be forgiven.

Occasionally he’ll laugh so hard during his dreams that he’ll wake both of us up laughing. During and after high school he worked nights as a janitor to raise money to go to college, worked as a radio DJ during and after college, waited tables in a German restaurant (lederhosen and all) to live near me in Austin while I finished at UT, was a radio ad copywriter and producer, had a brief stint as a secretary (when the rest of the radio station staff was laid off, about a week after our honeymoon), became a small-town TV news producer, then went back to school to become a teacher. Except for brief stints as a telemarketer and financial planner, he’s taught high school English and Journalism for 17 years.

During a recent trial I wrote that my only two anchors were Tim and Jesus. Certainly I have no guarantee that we will grow old together but, if God allows, that is my wish.  This morning Nathan Huse led us in Matt Redman’s “Nothing But the Blood” and this line really stuck with me: “Your blood speaks a better word than all the empty claims I’ve heard upon this earth”.  Jesus is certainly my greatest treasure but, after Christ and His forgiveness, Tim and our children are God’s greatest gifts to me, much greater than “all the empty claims I’ve heard upon this earth.”