Speaker 1: The Upper Room presents So you want to stay married?
Speaker 1: Today's episode in this study of family life in the
Speaker 1: modern home is for Richer, for Poorer, for better for Worse,
Speaker 1: Especially written and produced for the Upper Room by Carlton E. Morse,
Speaker 1: featuring Jeanette Nolan as Laura and John McIntyre as Friend,
Speaker 1: with Jane Morgan and Ken Christie. There is none so
Speaker 1: happy as two people closely tied together by a common
Speaker 1: goal ahead and with a rich background of shared sacrifices,
Speaker 1: struggles and memories. I am thinking at the moment of
Speaker 1: Laura Montgomery, who married Fred Evans against her father's best judgment.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was twenty years ago. I was nineteen when
Speaker 2: I went to my far and said I was going
Speaker 2: to marry Fred.
Speaker 3: Yes, I've known Fred since he was born, My dear.
Speaker 1: Fred's a good boy, I think so dead. But Fred
Speaker 1: hasn't got a cent to his name.
Speaker 2: But hardly any young men in their twenties have money.
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem to me. Fred's tried very hard to
Speaker 1: accumulate anything. I've seen little sign of industry in that
Speaker 1: young man. Oh but you will, you mean after you've
Speaker 1: married him? Of course, no girl ever reformed any young
Speaker 1: man by marrying him. Laura, that is a dreadful romantic
Speaker 1: fallacy which has got more girls into trouble.
Speaker 2: But that's not it at all. I wouldn't be reforming him.
Speaker 2: It's just that he'll have an incentive.
Speaker 1: But will he go right on living with his family
Speaker 1: when he drag you into the mess too?
Speaker 2: Well, that's horrible, of course.
Speaker 3: Not Well, my dear, you go talk to your mother.
Speaker 2: And that's what I did that day twenty years ago.
Speaker 2: I went and talked to my mother. And it's just
Speaker 2: not going to make any difference. Mother. I'm in love
Speaker 2: with Fred and he's in love with me.
Speaker 4: Well, then there's not very much use for me to
Speaker 4: say anything, is there.
Speaker 2: What do you think I'm wrong?
Speaker 4: If you're going to marry Fred Evans Willy nilly, then
Speaker 4: don't you think it would be tactless of me to
Speaker 4: say anything damaging against my future son in law?
Speaker 2: Then you do feel the way father does, No, Laura.
Speaker 4: Every woman must follow the dictates of her heart. Your
Speaker 4: father may be more practical financially, but every woman knows
Speaker 4: that her happiness depends not on how much money your
Speaker 4: husband gives her, but how much he gives of himself.
Speaker 4: If you see in Fred all the good things you
Speaker 4: desire in a husband, then marry him, love him, cling
Speaker 4: to him. I don't know any other way for a
Speaker 4: woman to get the things she needs most.
Speaker 2: Out of life. And so twenty years ago, last June,
Speaker 2: Laura Montgomery and Fred Evans walked down the aisle of
Speaker 2: our community Church and gave our lives to one another.
Speaker 2: Fred had built our service station with his father, and
Speaker 2: we had rented a five broom cottage just around the corner.
Speaker 2: We didn't go anywhere on our honeymoon because we were
Speaker 2: too eager to get started on our career. Besides, we
Speaker 2: didn't have the money. So Fred got into his overalls
Speaker 2: and went around the corner to the service station, and
Speaker 2: I did what was necessary in the cottage and tried
Speaker 2: to keep myself beautiful and exciting for Fred's coming at
Speaker 2: lunch time and dinner. This lasted for a month. Then
Speaker 2: one evening, Fred seemed depressed all through dinner. Another piece
Speaker 2: of pie, No thanks, more coffee.
Speaker 3: I don't think so, darling.
Speaker 2: There's something dreadfully wrong. What's the matter is it? Me?
Speaker 3: As though you could.
Speaker 2: Ask, well, it's something huh, I don't know.
Speaker 3: What to do about the service station.
Speaker 1: Do about it, Laura, I've just simply taken on a
Speaker 1: two man's job and I can't swing it.
Speaker 2: You mean a service station can't be run by one man?
Speaker 1: Well, actually the station should be open from six in
Speaker 1: the morning until nine at night. We opened at seven
Speaker 1: and close at seven.
Speaker 2: But those twelve hours are too much. Look how tired
Speaker 2: you are now? Or three more hours would kill you?
Speaker 3: I couldn't do it.
Speaker 2: You think we've made a mistake.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Well, could I be of any help my wife pump
Speaker 1: gasoline and wipe off windshields?
Speaker 2: Well, what's wrong with pumping gas and wiping windshields?
Speaker 3: I should say not, but I want to.
Speaker 2: I'd love it.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't love it after you were grease and grime
Speaker 1: up to your elbows.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't love being out there with you all day
Speaker 2: instead of just seeing you at breakfast and lunch and dinner.
Speaker 3: What what'll people say?
Speaker 2: Well, what would they say if I let the station
Speaker 2: go bus just because I wouldn't help my husband out
Speaker 2: of a tight place? May I wear coveralls and a
Speaker 2: painter's cap to keep the grease out of my hair?
Speaker 3: You'll hate it?
Speaker 2: I love it, and I did love it, without either
Speaker 2: one of us quite knowing why or how, A tiny
Speaker 2: strand that was not there before began to weave itself
Speaker 2: about our two hearts. It was made up of a
Speaker 2: shared experience, a mutual striving for achievement, the result of
Speaker 2: pitting our energies against misfortune. And that was the beginning
Speaker 2: of actually knowing that my father was wrong and my
Speaker 2: mother was right about my marriage. Well. At the first
Speaker 2: year and a half of our married life, Fred and
Speaker 2: I had paid something on the principal and interest against
Speaker 2: the service station, had all our current bills paid, and
Speaker 2: had four hundred dollars in the bank. More than that,
Speaker 2: we were looking forward to the arrival of well. Fred
Speaker 2: insisted it would be baby Laura. I knew in my
Speaker 2: heart it was Fred Junior. We had decided it was
Speaker 2: time I stopped working in the station, and on that
Speaker 2: evening we were driving over to my folks house when suddenly,
Speaker 2: out of a side street shot a cut down roadster.
Speaker 3: Laura, Laura, are you hurt?
Speaker 1: Laura, speak to me, Get her to the hospital, Get
Speaker 1: her to the hospital, hurry, hurry.
Speaker 2: Yes, we lost the baby, and I spent four long
Speaker 2: wearisome months in the hospital, weary, bitter, endless months, because
Speaker 2: not only had a careless boy in a miserable car
Speaker 2: killed our child, but he had wrecked our whole financial structure.
Speaker 2: The four hundred dollars melted like snow on the stove,
Speaker 2: and bills piled up, and Fred had to do without
Speaker 2: an extra man of the station. There just wasn't money
Speaker 2: to pay him. There were four or five months when
Speaker 2: we were two pretty sick and discouraged people, and we
Speaker 2: ended up the second year of our married life not
Speaker 2: one bit better than when we were married, in fact,
Speaker 2: with two hundred dollars in doctor bills more than when
Speaker 2: we started. But do you know that was another big
Speaker 2: turning point in our married life. The day I came
Speaker 2: home from the hospital, Fred carried me in and laid
Speaker 2: me on the bed, and suddenly he began to cry,
Speaker 2: and I started to cry, and together we'd lay there
Speaker 2: too full for words. Then we were praying together and
Speaker 2: finding comforting each other, and out of it all we
Speaker 2: got rid of something that had been building up in
Speaker 2: us since the accident. And when we were finished, there
Speaker 2: was a new, shining silver cord about our hearts that
Speaker 2: had never been there before. It was a chord of
Speaker 2: tenderness and sweetness forged out of common grief. There was
Speaker 2: something that we had shared together that no other person
Speaker 2: or persons would ever have a share in a marital tie.
Speaker 2: That's surmounted romantic love, or wealth, or social position or
Speaker 2: anything else. My father wanted for me and was afraid
Speaker 2: I would miss with Fred. And then at the end
Speaker 2: of our third year, our first son was born, and
Speaker 2: the beginning of our fifth year, our second son was born.
Speaker 2: And then in the seventh year came the twins, one
Speaker 2: girl and one boy. And I was a very busy
Speaker 2: mother and wife. The five room cottage fairly bulged at
Speaker 2: the themes with four children, and it was quite necessary
Speaker 2: that I make all the children's clothes as well as
Speaker 2: my own, for at the end of eight years, what
Speaker 2: was the children and the hospital bills and extra food
Speaker 2: and clothing, and the absolute necessity of a mechanic to
Speaker 2: help reread in the station. We never again had saved
Speaker 2: up anywhere as near as much as the four hundred
Speaker 2: dollars we saved the first year and a half. Was
Speaker 2: about the end of the eighth or the beg beginning
Speaker 2: of the ninth that we had a crisis about this
Speaker 2: very thing. It was evening a children were a bit.
Speaker 3: Sit down for a minute, Laura.
Speaker 2: Oh I really shouldn't, Fred. There's so many things I
Speaker 2: can be doing while a children are asleep. Poor darling,
Speaker 2: Fred Evans, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Trying so hard to be a good wife and mother
Speaker 1: and with absolutely nothing to do it with it?
Speaker 2: How can you talk like that?
Speaker 1: Your father was right, wasn't he? Fred will never make
Speaker 1: any money and Fred never has?
Speaker 2: What's got into you? Are you tired of me?
Speaker 1: Tired of you? Am I tired of my right arm?
Speaker 1: Am I tired of listening to my heartbeat?
Speaker 2: Well? Then what is wrong?
Speaker 3: You're such a.
Speaker 1: Good and gracious and wonderful girl and deserves so much
Speaker 1: from the world and from me.
Speaker 2: You're getting so little, Oh Fred, How little you understand me?
Speaker 3: What I do understand? I like world without end?
Speaker 2: Well do you think you could feel that way about
Speaker 2: me if I didn't feel that way about you? And
Speaker 2: you said something else that shows how very wrong you are.
Speaker 2: You said you try so hard to be a good
Speaker 2: wife and mother and have so little to do it with.
Speaker 2: Why a good wife isn't the one who has money
Speaker 2: to spend she's the one who has love to spend,
Speaker 2: high hopes for her family, the will and understanding to
Speaker 2: live in and for her husband, the desire to be
Speaker 2: one with her husband. And money and worldly goods and
Speaker 2: easy living have nothing whatever to do with a woman
Speaker 2: being a good wife and a good mother. Why I
Speaker 2: can teach my children to believe in God. I can
Speaker 2: teach them honesty and integrity, the meaning of good citizenship
Speaker 2: without indulging them with costly playthings, can't I is it
Speaker 2: better for our children to understand the meaning of humanity,
Speaker 2: to know their duties toward themselves and their fellow men,
Speaker 2: and to know truth when they hear it? Or is
Speaker 2: it more important that they have a father with pocket
Speaker 2: it's full of money.
Speaker 3: He wouldn't have anything different than it is.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't trade one second of my life with you
Speaker 2: for a whole lifetime with anyone else, under any circumstances
Speaker 2: of luxury.
Speaker 1: I don't know why you feel like that. It's always
Speaker 1: been strange to me, but it's good. I know it's
Speaker 1: good because it makes me feel strong and capable and
Speaker 1: the man inside. I don't suppose we'll ever have much
Speaker 1: of glamour and worldly effects my dear.
Speaker 2: You are my choice of men. You are the one
Speaker 2: I want.
Speaker 3: Such love can only lead a man to good.
Speaker 2: And now twenty years are gone by. The two oldest
Speaker 2: boys are just finishing high school, and the twins are
Speaker 2: in their first year. Fred no longer has a helper
Speaker 2: at the service station because with the boys help before
Speaker 2: and after school he gets along very well. And as
Speaker 2: he said the other day, he would like to get
Speaker 2: the station finally paid for before he gets so old
Speaker 2: ye has to turn it over to the boys. And
Speaker 2: we still lived in the same little five room house,
Speaker 2: and we are very proud of our children, our integrity
Speaker 2: in the community, and deep within us is the knowledge
Speaker 2: that with the ebb and flow of fortune, we have
Speaker 2: built a good marriage. To us, it is a thing
Speaker 2: of beauty, a thing well made and well cared for,
Speaker 2: and we are proud of it and will be until
Speaker 2: the day we die.
Speaker 1: If the family ties in your home are uncertain and
Speaker 1: giving way, family worship will help to strengthen them. Worship
Speaker 1: in the church of your choice, and have daily devotions.
Speaker 3: In the home.
Speaker 1: The church and the home are the basic rocks upon
Speaker 1: which the moral structure of this nation is built. They
Speaker 1: should be and must be one United Foundation. Ask your
Speaker 1: pastor for devotional helps or send a post guard to
Speaker 1: the upper Room. Nashville, Tennessee. You announcer Russell Thorston