MEMOIR OF A LOVE STORY

Hello Love Birds...and you know who you are. This MEMOIR is not restricted to me...but is being told over and over again...with lovers throughout the ages. It just so happens...that this is our story...Brenda Sue Williams and Rodney Lewis Boyd. It is a story of how two lives intersect...and their lives are changed as the course of events becomes the catalyst for destiny. This is a snippet of our story.

A MEMOIR is defined as a record of events written by a person with intimate knowledge of them based on personal observation. In other words...I have lived it up close and personal. Adam KNEW Eve...in an up close, personal and intimate way...physically, emotionally, and spiritually...and we are called to know our husbands and wives that way...and we are called to KNOW GOD close up and personal...so we can BE A WITNESS...have a personal observation of WHO and WHAT we believe. Here is our MEMOIR.

I can remember the first time I laid my bespectacled eyes on Brenda...as she walked into a garage on Nancy Avenue...on a Sunday afternoon...where that hot and rocking band THE BLIND DISTORTION (aka The Black Room)...were practicing. Dan Bogle (lead guitar), Bruce Fortner (lead singer), Jimmy Barrett (drummer...it was his garage) and James Satterwhite (bass) and last but not least Rockin' Rod (rhythm guitar).

I was rather reclusive until Dan Bogle and Bruce Fortner got me out of my room...and in the band...and into life. Bruce was dating Debbie Pearson...Brenda's best friend. For me...it was love at first sight...not for Brenda. She liked the lead guitar guy...nobody likes the rhythm guitar player. Anyway...the forces of friends began to try to set us up. Homecoming at Central High School was fast approaching...and Brenda needed a date...an apparently everyone else thought that I needed a date also.

I attempted to make contact with Brenda...by calling her multiple times...but every time I called her...she was at church (she was a good little Independent Baptist girl). I remember standing at a pay phone and getting the news that she was at church...AGAIN...and telling Dan...and his response...d--n Boyd...what are you trying to do...date a missionary?" Well...I persevered...and we had our first get together at the bonfire for the homecoming...and then a second date at SIR PIZZA...where I was introduced to mushrooms (not the psychedelic kind). Then it was time to go to the homecoming dance.

I was...and still am shy...especially in new situations...so the challenge was to get me to talk. We were going to double date with Bruce and Debbie...and Bruce contrived some openings for me to be part of the conversation. He told me to just talk about what I liked and knew about. Well...at that time it was when Paul McCartney was supposedly dead and there were multiple clues found on the Beatles albums. I knew about all of the clues...SO...we stashed some albums in the back seat...and Bruce said..."Rodney...why don't you tell us about Paul McCartney being dead." I reached around behind us...and got all of the albums and began to expound on all of the clues. YIKES...poor Brenda Sue...trapped in the backseat with a nerd. Well....one thing led to another...and Brenda saw beyond my nerdiness....and we became a couple.

We continued to date...going to dances...many concerts (Tom Jones, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Count Basie (all in the round at one show)...Three Dog Night, The Allman Brothers (with Barry Oakley and not Dwayne) and a bunch of others. The Barn Theater...with my mega-zit showing etc.

I made a tactical error...when I started going to church with Brenda. My thought was...that although I was a heathen...and my heathen powers were stronger than spiritual forces...that I could endure anything...as long as I could have a little more time with Brenda. As Huey Lewis and the News sings..."THAT'S THE POWER OF LOVE." The problem was that I miscalculated the POWER OF THE GOSPEL...D.B.R...nothing more...nothing less. I did not take into account that as I sat there in the service...no matter how I tried to put on the tough rock and roll persona...that I was hearing THE WORD OF GOD...and that FAITH WAS COMING.

One eventful day...Brenda and I were sitting at Shoney's in Murfreesboro (in the day when they had curb side service where you could stay in your car, listen to music, talk and watch cars circling Shoneys)...and we were talking about getting married. I had made the statement to Brenda that when...not if...but when we get married, we can raise the children in any religion that she wanted...because I was a heathen and I could adjust to any religion. WOW...I really was open minded....BUT the Baptist rose up in Brenda...and she said..."well.. that's fine...but when me and the children die...we will go to heaven...and you will go to hell and we will be separated." She dropped this GOSPEL BOMB on me in the middle of me taking a bite of those famous Shoney's Onion Rings. It hit me...that she was right. My life was a mess...I needed a Saviour...and that Saviour was not my music, drugs, paint thinners (that I was addicted to)...or anything else here on earth. I needed some H.H. (Heaven Help). I took her home...to 426 4th Avenue...and turned to her and asked here..."What do I have to do to be saved?" Being the good little Baptist girl that she was....she led me down the Romans Road to Salvation. She told me that:

a. There is none righteous no not one (Romans 3:10)
b. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 6:23)
c. Death via sin was passed to all men because of what Adam did (Romans 5:12)
d. The wages (what I earn) of sin is death BUT...the free gift of God is eternal life (Romans 6:23)
e. God demonstrated His Love for me in that while I was YET a sinner...Christ died for me (Romans 5:8)
f. I had to confess (say the same thing God says) with my mouth JESUS AS LORD...AND believe IN MY HEART ....that God HAS
RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD. The cause and effect of me doing that...RODNEY BOYD SHALL BE SAVED (Romans 10:9)
g. When I believe with my heart it results in righteousness...and when I confess with my mouth it results in salvation (Romans 10:10)
h. I would not be disappointed if I did this (Romans10:11)
i. If I CALLED UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD...I WILL BE SAVED (Romans 10:13)
j. FAITH CAME BY HEARING THE WORD OF GOD (Romans 10:17)


This was the defining moment of our relationship. It changed the course of our history together. We met in 1969...got married in 1972 (6:30 P.M. on the upswing of the clock)...and 37 years have passed. A lot of STUFF (some good, some bad, some ugly) have transpired.. BUT God has used it all...and it all has worked for good for us because we love the Lord and we have been called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:2)

Over the next few years...there have been many touchstones...Ebenezers...where God has moved in our lives....and we can look back with confidence that IF God moved in our lives...at those places...He will move again.

Looking back...in retrospective...there are many things that kept us together.

1. I'm a stud muffin (just kidding about that). I am more of a chunk than a hunk.
2. I make her laugh and she makes me laugh.
3. Brenda practices the Ruth Graham principle of marriage...in all of our years we have never
thought about divorce. We have thought about MURDER a few times...but not divorce.
4. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit. We both experienced a new dimension of moving in the
Spirit...and the Spirit moving through us.
5. JESUS CHRIST IS OUR LORD. We stay routed and grounded in the Cross of Jesus... the
blood of Jesus...the D.B.R. of Jesus.
6. Forgiveness. Ya gotta learn to forgive
7. The Word of God. We keep renewing our minds to the washing of the water of the Word.
8. Perseverance.

Well...that is just a little snapshot of how God took a boy and a girl...who grew up in the same town...put them together...and kept them together.

LOVE MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Many relationships are based on either...LUST (a selfish taking for themselves)...or based on LOVE. There are multiple words for this thing called LOVE in the Greek language. They are ALL GOOD. (1) phileo=a brotherly love....for one another...mankind (ie the city of Phileo Love Philadelphia) (2) Storge'=a familial love...a motherly love...a strong love
(3) eros=a sensual...not necessarily sexual love. I believe this can range from I love hot dogs to I love wife (physically and emotionally).

All of these loves are good, wonderful, needed...BUT...if these loves are not under girded and ruled by AGAPE' LOVE...once the feeling and emotion is gone out of these other loves...what was considered to be love CRUMBLES.

Read I Corinthians 13 for the characteristics of AGAPE LOVE...for God so AGAPED...that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

After 37 years...the various loves are still intact...because the agape' that we have for the Lord...is the Cornerstone for our love for one another.

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY!

Baby...God ain't through with us yet.

Love and Anniversary Kisses
Rodney "I Am A Blessed Man" Boyd