{"id":21067,"date":"2026-03-11T10:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T10:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/a-life-changing-love\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T16:24:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:24:33","slug":"a-life-changing-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/positive-living\/health-and-wellness\/life-advice\/managing-life-changes\/a-life-changing-love\/","title":{"rendered":"A Life-Changing Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I approached my fourth year of being a widow<\/a>, my son Jon said to me one day, \u201cMom, you should attend singles meetings. Go somewhere. How will you ever meet anyone?\u201d<\/p>\n

I sat at the old oak kitchen table with Jon as he devoured a sandwich. \u201cI can\u2019t, Jon. I just can\u2019t take a casserole and go to a singles meeting. I didn\u2019t like boy\/girl parties when I was thirteen. I still don\u2019t like them. God\u2019s going to have to send someone to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s crazy, Mom. Do you really think you can just sit here day after day and someone will knock on your door and say, \u2018Hello. I\u2019m your Christian husband-to-be, sent by God.’\u201d<\/p>\n

I brightened. Sounded good to me. \u201cYes, Jon! That\u2019s exactly what I\u2019ll do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAw, Mom, be reasonable. You have to date.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d dated some. I didn\u2019t even like the word for someone my age who\u2019d been married for 25 years. Jon left for work and I sat alone, thinking. \u201cLord,\u201d I said, \u201cI do not want to date. I just want to be a wife again. And I don\u2019t want to get married simply for companionship. I want a real romance. You select him. You know me better than I know myself.\u201d About the middle of last March I added a list of some qualifications for the husband I wanted:<\/p>\n

1. God must be first in his life. I want to be second.
\n2. He\u2019s well-read and loves books.
\n3. Further along than I am spiritually.
\n4. I\u2019d like to be a minister\u2019s wife, but I\u2019ll leave that up to You.
\n5. He has a deep sense of humor<\/a> so that we can laugh a lot.
\n6. He\u2019s able to communicate and have long conversations.
\n7. Cares about people, especially people who are hurting.
\n8. He will allow me to write and speak as long as You want me to.
\n9. He needs me.
\n10. There must be romance. Sparks!<\/p>\n

In the weeks that followed, thoughts that I believed were from God eased into my mind. I\u2019m going to answer your prayer for a husband. The answer will come very quickly\u2014so fast it will scare you if you don\u2019t trust Me completely. The answer will come through a phone call from a <\/em>Guideposts reader in response to an article.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen will I know for certain, Lord?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

By your birthday.<\/em><\/p>\n

So by July 8 I should know something.<\/p>\n

In April Guideposts<\/em> published my article on depression. That article evoked responses from quite a few men going through the pain of losing their wives<\/a>. Phone calls and letters became fairly common\u2014from the Atlanta, Georgia, area, as well as other states.<\/p>\n

On April 8 I received a telephone call from a professor of sociology at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. He lived on a small farm with some cattle, a grown son and a red dog. He was also a minister. Our conversations quickly became a regular thing, three or four times a week. I was corresponding with several other men too as a result of the article and had gone out with several from the Atlanta area. But pretty soon the professor\/minister\/farmer and I were writing almost every day. Our letters weren\u2019t love letters exactly, but there always seemed to be something between the lines, and I easily understood the unwritten messages.<\/p>\n

Sometimes Gene Acuff enclosed a blank sheet of paper without explanation. \u201cWhat\u2019s the blank paper?\u201d I finally wrote.<\/p>\n

His answer was immediate: \u201cThings I want to say to you that you aren\u2019t yet ready to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gene planned to come to Atlanta to see me. He says that I invited him, but I didn\u2019t. \u201cWhat do you want to see?\u201d I asked. \u201cWhere do you want to go?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to see you. No parties, no big plans. I want to walk with you, talk and laugh. I want to sit in a porch swing with you and I\u2019d like to go somewhere under a tin roof and listen to the rain<\/a> with you.\u201d I was smiling as I held the phone. I smiled a lot when we talked. We were talking six to eight hours weekly. My mother said I had a certain light back in my eyes again.<\/p>\n

Of course, I carefully told myself this wasn\u2019t serious. We didn\u2019t really know each other. We\u2019d just get acquainted, have some good conversation and good food, and relate our experiences of grief and loss. Gene\u2019s wife of 25 years had died in February 1987 of an 11-day brain-related illness. His loss was much too recent for us to be serious. I had no way of knowing then that when Gene read my article on depression in the April Guideposts<\/em>, God spoke to him: Check your wife\u2019s Bible. If she has the same Scriptures underlined that Marion used in the article, phone her right away.<\/em> She did and he did. Although neither of us understands it or can explain it, he says God told him<\/a> then, She will be your new wife.<\/em><\/p>\n

On my 51st birthday I went to get the mail as soon as I saw the mailman put it in the box. I knew a letter from Gene would arrive. He\u2019d already sent me a dozen red roses. There had been some mention of photographs. So far, all I had was a very small family portrait taken several years ago. I wanted some new pictures but wouldn\u2019t ask for them.<\/p>\n

There were two letters, one so thick I knew it was the promised pictures. I was late for an appointment and it was terribly hot, so I sat in my car with the air conditioning going full blast and read the letters. Just as I opened the pictures, God seemed to say, Put the tape lying on the seat in the tape deck<\/em>. I glanced on the seat. Yes, there lay a tape. Several days earlier all my Christian tapes had been stolen. The police returned them a few days later and by mistake included a country-and-western tape, which I\u2019d meant to give back. I\u2019m definitely not a country-and-western music fan. But I knew Gene was, and I had this funny feeling that something big was about to happen. Playing this tape seemed absolutely crazy, but this whole adventure with Gene Acuff was crazy, so I put the tape in.<\/p>\n

Jim Reeves began to sing incredibly sweet songs about love, including an old favorite I hadn\u2019t even thought about since I was 16: \u201cEvening shadows make me blue, when each weary day is through\u2026how I long to be with you\u2026my happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tears blurred my vision, and I whispered aloud over my pounding heart, \u201cGod, you can\u2019t possibly be speaking to me<\/a> through a stolen country-and-western tape!\u201d I had the photographs in my hand. I looked intently at Gene\u2019s smiling face and then at his dog. The dog was smiling too! His expression clearly said, He\u2019s pretty wonderful<\/em>. Gene wrote, \u201cIf I could take you out on your birthday, I\u2019d pick you up in my old \u201941 Chevy, and we\u2019d go to a 1950s movie and eat popcorn and drink Cokes from the little bottles, and of course we\u2019d eat Milk Duds at the movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMilk Duds,\u201d I screamed over the music, my heart melting like hot butter. No one knew of my passion for Milk Duds. How could Gene Acuff know? Jim Reeves was singing \u201cHave I Told You Lately That I Love You?\u201d I was humming along and trying not to cry on the photograph\u2014as I drove to my appointment an hour late.<\/p>\n

That night Gene phoned, and as we were about to hang up he said for the first time, \u201cI love you, Marion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, \u2018bye,\u201d I answered curtly and hung up. He said the same thing two nights later and I said the same thing. Only this time I hid under my pillow after hanging up and said, \u201cOh, God, I don\u2019t know how to handle this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third time he told me he loved me, there was a long silence. Then Gene asked, \u201cAre you going to say what I want you to say?\u201d I took a deep breath. I knew I loved him. It was as though I were a child about to jump off a high dive that I\u2019d tried to jump from many times during the summer. \u201cI love you, Professor Acuff. I really do love you.\u201d I had often wondered what his response would be if I ever said those words. His response wasn\u2019t to me at all: \u201cThank You, Lord. Oh, thank You. Praise You, Lord Jesus.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

July 27, the date of Gene\u2019s planned arrival, finally came. The waiting had been almost unbearable. I had lost 12 pounds and was hardly sleeping. The phone rang at noon, right on schedule, and a voice I knew so well said, \u201cHello.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are you?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cStone Mountain Inn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be there in ten minutes.\u201d Driving to the inn, I could hardly believe it was finally happening. We were actually going to meet. Stone Mountain Inn is a resort just 10 minutes from my house. I pulled in the driveway. Someone honked at me. Looking in the rearview mirror, I recognized Gene. I thought about sitting in the car and letting him come over. But just like in the movies, we moved very fast toward each other. I left my car running in the middle of a driveway, the door open. My sunglasses dropped on the pavement. Just as we embraced, I remembered some strict advice I\u2019d given my girls when they were growing up: \u201cNo public display of affection, ever.\u201d But right then in the middle of the parking lot in broad daylight with people all around us, we kissed. I lost count of the times.<\/p>\n

I had planned a picnic for just the two of us the next day at my cousin\u2019s 150-year-old renovated farmhouse located on 600 acres in northeast Georgia. It is sort of a getaway for them and furnished in antiques. I thought Gene would feel at home there. There were even cattle and three swings and a tin roof. Sitting on a quaint loveseat in front of a stone fireplace, Gene started to ask if I would marry him in December.<\/p>\n

I suddenly experienced a full-fledged ulcer attack. The stress had been unbearable. We were deeply in love and knew God had brought us together. But he had to return to Oklahoma to teach, and I didn\u2019t see how I could just pull up stakes and go with him. My two boys, almost 20, lived with me. I was paranoid about leaving them alone for even a night, certain they would break some of my rules. Also, my two married daughters and two granddaughters lived nearby. Jennifer, the younger daughter, was expecting her first child. My widowed mother lived less than an hour and a half away. All my dearest friends, my world, was in Georgia. I\u2019d always lived there. And I was booked to speak for the next six months.<\/p>\n

Gene had to move to the far end of the loveseat. Every time he came close my stomach pains intensified. He held onto my foot and asked me to marry him. I found I could tolerate foot-holding pretty well. I said yes. We talked about maintaining two separate residences and commuting often. Two days later, in exactly two minutes, we selected an engagement ring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then it was Sunday. Our week was over. Gene left crying, and I went to my room, crying, and fell across my bed begging God to \u201cdo something.\u201d He somehow knocked me out. Totally. Meanwhile Gene, en route back to Oklahoma, phoned, but my boys couldn\u2019t wake me up. When I did wake up four hours later and they told me he\u2019d called, I somehow knew I must clear my calendar. I started phoning people, asking to be relieved of speaking engagements. In 11 years of speaking, I\u2019d never done such a thing, except when my husband, Jerry, had brain surgery.<\/p>\n

Later Gene called again from Tennessee and asked, \u201cCould you marry me<\/a> Wednesday?\u201d I checked my calendar and said yes and wrote \u201cMarry Gene\u201d on August 12.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, the date was moved to August 14 at seven in the evening. A small ceremony was planned. Gene never asked me to leave my boys. He was content to have a marriage in which we commuted for a while. But God told me clearly, Quit hovering over your boys. You are trying to be their god. Let Me be God to them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gene and I honeymooned at my cousin\u2019s old restored farmhouse. We sort of identified with it. The farmhouse never expected to be whole and alive again with meaning and purpose. Gene and I understood something about restoration. We thought the farmhouse might like us too. Together we were almost 107 years old. The night before we left the farm, God sent the rain we\u2019d so often talked about on the phone and written about. It was our first time to see rain together. As we listened to it on the tin roof, Gene said quietly, \u201cYour formula works, Marion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat formula?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe restoration formula from your book, The Nevertheless Principle<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, yes! Yes, it did work. I could remember the formula almost word for word. When I was slowly watching my husband die from a brain tumor, I carefully examined my restoration formula: \u201cNo matter what is taken away from you, if you keep your eyes on Jesus and praise Him<\/a>, He will restore it to you. You will be joyful to the exact same degree you have hurt. What you have lost will be replaced\u2026joy for mourning\u2026beauty for ashes\u2026.God I don\u2019t see how it could possibly work now. I don\u2019t see how You will ever come to me again in any shape or form. But I won\u2019t limit You, so I\u2019m going to remember this moment for the rest of my life. And if and when You restore the years that the locusts have eaten, I will tell people about it and write about it. I am committing to You to remember this agony, and if You can come up with some kind of joy to the equivalent that I hurt, You are truly a God of miracles.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n

On August 22, 1987, Gene and I headed for the Atlanta airport and a new life together. I\u2019d often said after Jerry was gone that if God ever asked me to simply walk out on everything, I would. But I had assumed that it would be for missions\u2014Africa, not Stillwater, Oklahoma! But God had recently given me an old familiar Scripture with a marvelous life-changing message: \u201cThe Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want\u2026.He leadeth me beside the Stillwaters. He restoreth my soul\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I approached my fourth year of being a widow, my son Jon said to me one day, \u201cMom, you should attend singles meetings. Go somewhere. How will you ever meet anyone?\u201d I sat at the old oak kitchen table with Jon as he devoured a sandwich. \u201cI can\u2019t, Jon. I just can\u2019t take a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[376],"tags":[67],"ppma_author":[764],"class_list":["post-21067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-managing-life-changes","tag-marriage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Life-Changing Love - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/positive-living\/health-and-wellness\/life-advice\/managing-life-changes\/a-life-changing-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Life-Changing Love\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As I approached my fourth year of being a widow, my son Jon said to me one day, \u201cMom, you should attend singles meetings. 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