Dear Herry, Love Thumper

In March 1985, Rhonda met Jeff in a Disney World Easter Parade in Orlando, Florida.  He was a Navy Ensign wearing his dress whites, she was an Azalea Trail Maid, wearing a pastel yellow antebellum gown.   He was assigned the duty of escorting her based on their height.  Over the course of two days getting to know each other she learned Jeff had attended the same denomination church she worked at and that he’d led Bible studies in college.  Plus he apologized for saying crap and was the first of all the escorts – as far as she knew – who sought out some ice water to offer her in the muggy Florida heat.  She was smitten.

After nearly two years of their long distance relationship, they married in January 1987 and spent the next five years while he was in the Navy in Hawaii.  She was 19, he was 25.  They began their civilian life in the Pacific Northwest in 1992, building their dream home and starting a family.  In the middle of that adventure, Jeff’s job was eliminated and they eventually moved to Georgia, without family or friends, for his new job.  It was at this point Rhonda realized, having coming from a broken home, she needed help with this parenting thing and she and Jeff began attending church together for the first time since they met.  Soon after, Jeff dropped what would become the most life-altering news Rhonda had ever experienced.  He did not believe the Bible was the inerrant Word of God, and he did not believe one needed a Savior, Jesus Christ, for a relationship with God.  

Just as Rhonda was reconnecting to her church roots, she discovered her soulmate had severed his.  This led to a crisis of faith, negotiations with God and periodically trying to find loopholes out of what she learned was an “unequally yoked” marriage (the Bible says IF the unbeliever was willing to stay, the believer must stay in the marriage…so what if I stopped showering or wearing makeup…?).  She had heard it preached over the years that believers weren’t supposed to be married to unbelievers.  But, having returned over and over again to the very crosshairs of the dogma they disagreed on, Rhonda found conviction, correction and strength from the Bible to stay the course.  And, true to His Word, God’s Word has not returned void.  She is not the same wrecked young mother she was then.  Rather, as a nut who stood her ground, she’s becoming an oak of righteousness for the display of God’s splendor, learning to love through the lens of Truth.

Rhonda currently lives in Wenatchee, WA with her husband Jeff, relishing the outrageous joys of being married, a Nana, skiing, gardening, taking spontaneous road trips and sampling plenty of dark chocolate.