Of all my blessings, one of the greatest is that I married a woman who has given herself to living out the truths of God’s Word. Among the pictures sent on her birthday, was one of Teckla sitting with high school friends in Pioneer Park (Walla Walla) having a Bible study. From her earliest days as a Christian, Teckla has sought to know, and more importantly do, God’s Word.
Teckla was never one to clobber people with Bible verses. She always let the Spirit apply the verses to her life and heart, not in any legalistic way, but in a way that she felt pleased Jesus. Over the years I have seen a verse of Scripture put her on her knees asking God to change her and make her more like Jesus. Tenderly, she opened her heart and life to the scalpel of God’s Word.
Many may not know this, but Teckla was a Bible scholar. During the three years I taught at Mid-America Nazarene University in the 80’s, Teckla completed (with straight A’s) two years of New Testament Greek and numerous classes in Biblical Literature. She knew a solid hermeneutical approach to Scripture when she saw it. She knew how to do a word study in Greek or Hebrew. When she prepared for a Bible study, she was surrounded by commentaries, concordances, and word studies. Had she wanted the degree, a couple more classes would have given her a B. A. in Biblical Studies.
But for Teckla, God’s Word was never only academic, it was a stream of living water—headlights on life’s dark road. In our winding spiritual pilgrimage, Teckla would follow me anywhere that conformed to God’s Word and heart. The summer before my father died, I told Teckla that the commandment to honor my father and mother was burning in my heart and that I wanted to spend the summer painting my father’s and her mother’s houses. Teckla was quick to agree. Even more amazing, she was willing to sell our house in Kansas City and move to Myrtle Point to help my mother when my dad’s cancer became critical.
A few years later, After doing devotions in Job 29, I felt a strong call to be a “father to the fatherless”. Teckla and I had already adopted our son, Peter, so I initially thought this might mean being a soccer coach or something else on weekends. But within just few days a young man in Teckla’s youth group asked if we would consider adopting his older brother’s three boys. Because of God speaking to us from Job, we were certain this was God’s will. Because we listened to God’s voice through His Word, soon we were parents of four boys.
In our theological journey, which meant losing my job at Mid-America, all I needed to do was show Teckla that I was being true to Scripture and we were of one heart. Making God’s Word the final authority in our lives left us with almost nothing to argue about. Our forty-six years of marriage have been amazingly free of disagreement and fighting. Part of the reason for this is that we love not just the Word of God, but the ways of God. Together we have come to value what God values, love what He loves. We have embraced the upside-down kingdom where the servant of all the greatest of all.
Even though Teckla is struggling with memory loss, we read a chapter of the Bible aloud each morning. She still reads well but sometimes switches one word for another. Her first try at John 15:12 was “This is my condiment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” She caught her mistake, but I liked her “Living Bible” paraphrase. Her life has been full of the condiment of obedience to God’s Word—nothing stuffy, just the rich, sweet fragrance and taste of God’s love.
