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 a Child.
Speaker 2: Shall Lead Them?
Speaker 1: Especially written and produced for The Upper Room by Carlton E. Morse,
Speaker 1: featuring Jeanette Nolan as Anne, Tom Collins as Arthur, and
Speaker 1: Dawn Bender as Shirling.
Speaker 2: When Arthur and Anne.
Speaker 1: Wentworth were first married, there was grave uncertainty in their
Speaker 1: minds about children. Oh yeah, someday, of course, but right
Speaker 1: in the beginning, maybe I can explain it well. In
Speaker 1: the first place, Anne and I were so much in love,
Speaker 1: they just didn't seem any place in our lives for
Speaker 1: another human being. On top of that, I was just
Speaker 1: out of the army, and I had a queer feeling
Speaker 1: that the world was all topsy turvy, and I wasn't
Speaker 1: sure I wanted to bring another human being into the
Speaker 1: mess to face what might lie ahead.
Speaker 2: And then there was money.
Speaker 1: No sure, I had a job, but there just wasn't
Speaker 1: enough money in the panvelope every week to cover food
Speaker 1: and rent and all the other little necessities, let alone
Speaker 1: a few small pleasures for handing me. And then Anne
Speaker 1: was so young and beautiful and carefree.
Speaker 3: You know, secretly in our hearts. We must have wanted
Speaker 3: our children most terribly all the time, without us quite
Speaker 3: realizing it. We must have because we spent so much
Speaker 3: time talking about why we shouldn't have them. If we
Speaker 3: had a nickel for every hour we spent trying to
Speaker 3: prove to ourselves that it wouldn't be fair to the children,
Speaker 3: we'd be very wealthy people.
Speaker 2: And then it happened.
Speaker 3: Yes, the whole thing was taken out of our hands.
Speaker 3: I honestly think that somehow God looked down upon our
Speaker 3: confusion and indecision and settle the matter for us. Not
Speaker 3: that either Arthur or I were very religious at the time.
Speaker 3: I mean, we both had religious training as children, but
Speaker 3: we'd will rather let things slip. I wanted to bring
Speaker 3: in the religious angle here because it seemed so much
Speaker 3: a part of the coming of our children and what
Speaker 3: happened to Arthur and me and our home as our
Speaker 3: family grew. For instance, the night our first little girl
Speaker 3: came was the first time that Arthur and I ever
Speaker 3: prayed together. I was still pretty wan and shaky when
Speaker 3: they let Arthur come in to see me and Darling, Hello, Papa,
Speaker 3: Darling Dardley, I'm all right, Rather I'm all right.
Speaker 2: I know, I know what. I'm so thank you. I'm
Speaker 2: want to thank somebody.
Speaker 3: We could say a prayer, Yes, yes.
Speaker 1: That's it, our Father, which out in heaven, Howard Halloa,
Speaker 1: Thy Kingdom, Come, come thy, will.
Speaker 2: You do give us the stage our daily bread were
Speaker 2: the coming of our daughter, Shirley.
Speaker 1: We realized how silly and juvenile we'd been to everythink
Speaker 1: of not having children.
Speaker 2: It hadn't been a home at all.
Speaker 1: It had just been a selfish, self centered place in
Speaker 1: which Anne and I had been too occupied with ourselves
Speaker 1: to ever think of other people.
Speaker 2: We expanded, we blossomed.
Speaker 1: It was almost as though our early married life had
Speaker 1: only been the tightly closed but of a flower, whose
Speaker 1: beauty and perfume unfolded and pervaded the atmosphere only after
Speaker 1: we became parents. I thought Anne was beautiful before, but
Speaker 1: in the role of a mother, sh the open flood
Speaker 1: gates of love in my heart that I hadn't even
Speaker 1: known were there. The miracle of bringing life in the
Speaker 1: world together cause a strange thing to a man and woman.
Speaker 2: It deepens and enriches the soul.
Speaker 1: It's like deep, beautiful, moving organ music rolling down the
Speaker 1: corridors of heaven.
Speaker 2: It happens every time.
Speaker 1: After Shirley came Jimmy and then young Anne, and each
Speaker 1: time they were singing and rejoicing and the ringing of
Speaker 1: bells and Hallel Lou in our hearts.
Speaker 2: And I'm not forgetting the bad times either.
Speaker 1: That terrible night, the doctor arrived at four o'clock in
Speaker 1: the morning and sat beside Jimmy's bed while the small
Speaker 1: hot face burned with fever and the little body shivered
Speaker 1: in the agony of a life and death fight. I
Speaker 1: won't forget that night, nor will I ever forget the
Speaker 1: morning when the fever broke, the battle was won, and
Speaker 1: the hand cried on my shoulder in desperate relief at
Speaker 1: the goodness of heaven, and say, there and it's all
Speaker 1: right now, it's going.
Speaker 2: To be all right.
Speaker 3: I prayed so hard, I prayed so high that it
Speaker 3: was a miracle. Let's say it do. The doctor said
Speaker 3: it was a miracle.
Speaker 2: Thank they Dear God for answering hands prayer.
Speaker 3: It seemed that at every turn our children brought Arthur
Speaker 3: and Me closer to our childhood religion. When they came,
Speaker 3: we felt called upon to give thanks for them. And
Speaker 3: then in their infancy, we turned toward our church for
Speaker 3: their christening and baptism and early training. Somehow we couldn't
Speaker 3: disassociate our children from immortality and from the goodness and
Speaker 3: graceciousness of a supreme being. It all seemed so much
Speaker 3: a part of the great plan, something beyond our poor knowledge,
Speaker 3: that our home became a religious home, almost without us
Speaker 3: realizing it or knowing it. The sacredness of giving life
Speaker 3: gave added sacredness to our home, to the relationship between
Speaker 3: Arthur and me. When we were first married and only
Speaker 3: had our love for each other to tie us together,
Speaker 3: I often had qualms of losing Arthur. Other women seemed
Speaker 3: so much more attractive than I felt. I really felt
Speaker 3: an inadequacy within myself. I felt my hold on Arthur's
Speaker 3: love was so ephemeral that it might dissolve like the mist.
Speaker 1: Is that why you used to ask me if I
Speaker 1: still loved you, kept quanting proof of my love?
Speaker 3: Of course I was unsure. Didn't you ever feel unsure
Speaker 3: of me?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: We were a couple of times, as when the boss's
Speaker 1: son came out from Europe and made that big pitch
Speaker 1: in your direction. As there were a couple of times
Speaker 1: now have butterflies of fear around my eye?
Speaker 3: Have you ever had that feeling since Shirley was born?
Speaker 2: Not once?
Speaker 3: And neither have I. Because in Shirley and Jimmy and
Speaker 3: baby Anne we found meaning in our marriage in proving
Speaker 3: to be dependable parents. We've growd to each other that
Speaker 3: we are likewise dependable helpmates.
Speaker 1: I take it from this, Missus Wentworth, that you believe
Speaker 1: in children in the home.
Speaker 3: There's no doubt of it, mister Wentworth. In fact, for me,
Speaker 3: children are the first and importance in making a marriage
Speaker 3: a success. Children are the bonds which go beyond words, vowels,
Speaker 3: marriage certificates, or even the laws of man.
Speaker 4: Are you talking about me?
Speaker 3: Mama, Shirley? Where did you pop from?
Speaker 2: Who?
Speaker 4: I heard you and Daddy talking in here? So I
Speaker 4: came in?
Speaker 2: What no kiss for your father?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 2: Oh? Well moist but otherwise satisfactory.
Speaker 4: Oh look, what's the matter with my skates?
Speaker 3: Oh that was an accident.
Speaker 4: It's broke.
Speaker 3: Look at the wheel, Yes, darling, Jimmy was wearing them,
Speaker 3: but they're my skates.
Speaker 2: He's broke. Well, you can forgive your brother for an accident, No.
Speaker 4: Sir, I'm not gonna forgive him forever and ever he
Speaker 4: broke my skate. Sureley, you mustn't say that, not ever
Speaker 4: as well as he left.
Speaker 2: You don't mean that, Shirley.
Speaker 4: But how can you forgive anybody for breaking your skates?
Speaker 4: Those are the only skates I've got? And I hate him?
Speaker 2: What come? Here?
Speaker 1: Every evening of the close of our little devotions, here
Speaker 1: at home we say the Lord's prayer?
Speaker 2: Can you say it?
Speaker 4: Look at my skates, Daddy?
Speaker 2: I know, I know? Can you say the Lord's prayer?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 2: Say it for me?
Speaker 4: Please, our Father, which are in heaven, Hello, be thy name,
Speaker 4: Thy Kingdom. Come. Thy will be done on earth as
Speaker 4: it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
Speaker 4: Give us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass
Speaker 4: against us.
Speaker 2: We do just not wait, wait a minute.
Speaker 4: That's right, isn't it, Mommy?
Speaker 3: That's right?
Speaker 2: But say that last again? Give us this day our
Speaker 2: daily bread? Then?
Speaker 4: What forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
Speaker 4: trespass against us?
Speaker 2: Um? Huh? Do you realize what you're saying?
Speaker 4: I'm asking God to forgive me for what I do wrong.
Speaker 2: You're asking more than that.
Speaker 1: I am well aren't you forgive us the wrong we
Speaker 1: do as we forgive others.
Speaker 2: Who do wrong against us. Don't you see?
Speaker 1: Surely you've got to forgive Jimmy, because if you don't,
Speaker 1: then you can't ask God to forgive you. You won't even
Speaker 1: have the right to say the Lord's prayer with us
Speaker 1: while we if you hold enmity in your heart against.
Speaker 2: Your brother, but he broke my skate, well.
Speaker 1: And didn't you get into my shaving cabinet the other
Speaker 1: day and break my razor?
Speaker 2: Hm?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 2: And didn't you tell me you were sorry? And didn't
Speaker 2: I forgive you?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 2: And weren't we both happier? I know I was.
Speaker 1: I forgave you, and I know your mother forgave me
Speaker 1: for the forgetting to bring groceries home from downtown. And Hm,
Speaker 1: we forgave the neighbors were running their car across our lawn,
Speaker 1: and the neighbors forgave us for keeping them up late
Speaker 1: last week because our radio was on too loud, And
Speaker 1: it goes on and on all our lives. Were forgiving
Speaker 1: other people and they're forgiving us because we're all human beings,
Speaker 1: and human beings always seen to be getting into trouble
Speaker 1: where they need somebody to understand and forgive me.
Speaker 3: Here, darling, take this handka jam Now, Jimmy's very sorry
Speaker 3: and the skates can be fixed.
Speaker 4: You know, I didn't know the Lord's prayer meant that.
Speaker 3: Well, then you've learned something rather wonderful, haven't you. Now
Speaker 3: You know that we can't even ask for forgiveness for
Speaker 3: ourselves when we refuse to give it to others. And
Speaker 3: it's so important it may make a difference in your
Speaker 3: whole life.
Speaker 4: I don't hate Jimmy, Well.
Speaker 3: Of course you don't, So he's out in the kitchen.
Speaker 3: Why don't you go tell him?
Speaker 4: All right? I'd even kiss him when he.
Speaker 3: Hate me.
Speaker 2: After.
Speaker 3: That was a wise thoughtful way of handling that, you know.
Speaker 1: And I sold myself an idea while I was talking
Speaker 1: to Shirley. You did what children are good for people
Speaker 1: and get down to fundamentals with them. You have to
Speaker 1: re state fundamental truths over and over, and first thing,
Speaker 1: you know, they begin to seep into your own thick skull.
Speaker 3: I don't know what you're talking about, but it sounds interesting.
Speaker 1: Well, as I was talking to Shirley about forgiveness, I
Speaker 1: just remembered something that's been happening down at the office. Well,
Speaker 1: one of the salesman's been getting in my hair, and
Speaker 1: I've been building up a grudge I dislike for him.
Speaker 3: Oh I see m.
Speaker 1: It just occurred to me that I could probably do
Speaker 1: a little forgiving myself. I hadn't thought of myself, and
Speaker 1: just that light before.
Speaker 3: Children are in education, they say, well.
Speaker 1: They say, truly, education and the fundamentals of living. You
Speaker 1: can't train a child properly without becoming a better person yourself.
Speaker 3: And better people make better marriages. And Darling, that's what
Speaker 3: we're living, one of the better marriages.
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 1: in the home. The church and the home are the
Speaker 1: basic rocks upon which the moral structure of this nation
Speaker 1: is built. They should be and must be, one united foundation.
Speaker 1: Ask your pastor for devotional helps or send a postcard
Speaker 1: to the Upper Room Nashville, Tennessee your announcer Russell Cross