Blessing # 3 – Good husband & Wives

May the Lord protect and defend you.
May He always shield you from shame.
May you come to be
In Israel a shining name.

May you be like Ruth and like Esther.
May you be deserving of praise.
Strengthen them, Oh Lord,
And keep them from the strangers' ways.

May God bless you and grant you long lives.
May the Lord fulfill our Sabbath prayer for you. May God make you good mothers and wives.
May He send you husbands who will care for you.

May the Lord protect and defend you.
May the Lord preserve you from pain.
Favor them, Oh Lord, with happiness and peace.
Oh, hear our Sabbath prayer. Amen.

- “The Sabbath Prayer”

from Fiddler on the Roof

I love this prayer and have prayed it for my own daughters. Today I want to acknowledge that I see God blessing my daughters with good husbands who do care for them.

September 2002

Today we braved  a blizzard to attend the KGK (Christian Student Association) OB会 (Alumni Meeting) for Northeast Japan in Aomori City which, as Wikipedia states, is “renowned for heavy snowfall, in fact the heaviest among all Japanese cities.”

Because we love students,  we place a high priority on KGK events so perhaps we would have been there anyway… But we also felt a certain obligation to support our son-in-law in his position of organizor!

Yoshiya’s last year with Hirosaki University KGK was my first year and to be honest it rather puzzled me what all the girls saw in him. Eight years later he married one of our daughters and now I see a kind and godly man with many gifts.

January 2013