Laced With Grace

I have an ornery side to my character.

It’s my Dad’s fault. No. Actually it’s my Dad’s, Dad who is at fault. I hail from a long and silly heritage of practical jokes and teasing of family members.

Good Grief!

Right now let me publically state my apologies to my family. They have lived with my hare-brained antics now for years and have accepted my need to giggle at their expense as part of daily life with Lynn.

My poor husband after 18 years of marriage still stumbles into my outrageous humor set-ups with full trust. However, he has come to love this oddball side of my charm. *grin* He laughs right along with me. My son and daughter, poor kids, well, they have already inherited this family disease. I already feel sorry for my future grandkids.

I’m telling you about this quirk in my personality to bring you into our family dynamic in hopes you might appreciate the humor and the wonder of the story I’m about to share.

Two weeks ago after dropping my daughter at school, I came home and went into her bedroom to get her dirty clothes to start the wash.

What is it with teenaged girls? It must have been another fashion crisis meltdown that particular morning. Clothing lay crumpled on the floor, flung around the end of her bed and in the giant pile of shoes in her closet. Sheesh!

Feeling charitable, I decided to hang the clothes up. As I was working a shirt onto a hanger, I heard the padded footsteps of my husband. We live in a single story home with several hallways. He was perusing the hallways looking for me. After 18 years of marriage, I know this man well. He doesn’t yell… (like me, HEY, HONEY, WHERE ARE YOU). He doesn’t even call my name. He walks. He paces. He searches and when you’re married to an ornery blonde like me, his search efforts are futile.

Ahem.

So, I hear the pacing of the man. I grin to myself and move farther into my daughter’s room to see just how long it will take for him to find me. Nothing like an impromptu game of hide-n-seek in the morning to tickly my funny bone. Yessiree. I stand in my daughter’s room and continue to hang clothes in the closet. My concealment is perfect and my husband continues to walk the halls.

I hear my husband open the door to the garage. Nope.

I hear him walk the hall by my office again. Nope

Next he walks into our bedroom…. For the second time. Nope, not here.

At this point, I’m struggling to conceal my glee at his wanderings.

Finally, I decide the poor guy needs to get to work so I make some noise in the closet.

He picks up on the clue and moves directly down the hall toward me.

He rounds the corner of my daughter’s bedroom and I start giggling straight off.

I love this man. He’s not mad. He’s actually just glad to find me. He starts to laugh and then holds out his hand to show me something.

He shyly says, “ I found your glasses in our bedroom after searching the entire house for you twice.”

I grin.

He says in a half serious half kidding tone, “I thought you were raptured.”

I rush to him and throw my arms around him, “Oh honey, did you think I was raptured without you?”

He didn’t really reply. But we embraced and I rushed a prayer up to Jesus with a heart full of love and hope for this man.

So, I ask you today; Is my husband a believer or is he not?

Oh how I pray with fervor and passion that on the day of the rapture all of you will find that Mr. and Mrs. Donovan left planet earth together.

Hearing my husband’s words, “I thought you were raptured,” compels me to continue to pray for his salvation.

Don’t give up hope for your unsaved loved ones. Your influence and prayers are monumentally important.

Be blessed this day and come Lord, Jesus, come. Lynn

Find me daily at

Over the weekend I returned to my childhood home.

My daughter and I flew from Southern California to Salt Lake City. I hadn’t been back to where I grew up to visit my old friends for more than 30 years.

Thirty years.

Although we stayed in touch with our friend and they visited our new home, it has been a very long time to wait for me to return home.

This weekend we all gathered at my BFF Michelle’s house to celebrate her parent’s 50th wedding anniversary.

Fifty years.

It was a surprise party and boy howdy, what a surprise. Her parents had no idea people were coming from everywhere to honor their life-long commitment to one another.

Hysterical laughter filled the weekend as we recounted our crazy childhood antics. In fact, I was reminded about how I often got the whole gang into trouble of some kind or another due to my mischievous nature and curiosity and wild imagination. Sheesh!

Oh but did we ever have fun. Tons of fun.

We all traveled to Millcreek Canyon for a barbeque. When we were little, our mothers would load the car with sandwiches, Kool-Aid, and six kids and take us on a picnic in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. We went every week on Wednesdays during the summer. So in honor of those times we trekked up the mountain again as adults with our adult and near-adult children joining in the tradition. It is a legacy that thrills my heart.

As I sat on the picnic bench chatting, I moved closer to Rosie, whose wedding anniversary we celebrate. I asked her an important question. I said, “Rosie, you know that I write about marriage, so please tell me, what is the secret to a successful 50 year marriage?”

She grinned, paused, looked me in the eye, and then spoke words of wisdom that will forever lie upon my heart. She said several things make a marriage successful such as patience and perseverance. But what she said next was profound.

She said, “You need a sense of humor.”

And how right she is. Can you imagine how different our lives could be if we choose to laugh instead of criticize? What peace we might obtain if we look for humor in a stressful situation. What would happen in our relationship if we elect to tickle the funny bone instead of feed our anger when accidents happen? We need to laugh at ourselves and laugh along with our spouse and their crazy moments, at circumstances, with our kids…….. at life.

This very day, let’s choose to bring and GIANT sense of humor into our marriages and watch as it displaces disappointment, unforgivness and bitterness.

So today, I share these words of wisdom with you straight from a woman who has 50 years of experience, four children, and six grandchildren. Her family and friends testify to this truth, Rosie quietly impacted so many, many lives for the good.

I am one of them.

Laughter can cure many ills, tear down walls and repair what sometimes appears hopeless. Our Lord, is a God of joy and I know He has a sense of humor. Let His grace, love and humor be the glue in your marriage and watch as you also quietly bless those around you and behold the abundant riches which come from a lifetime commitment to your spouse.

Be blessed, Lynn
Find me daily at

If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab our back.

I saw this quote a while back and thought to myself, how true.

Most of you know I write about my marriage to my unsaved husband. I began writing after God healed me from my disappointments in life. But, it was only after many years of fruitless living.

Because I wasted so many years wandering like the Israelites in the dessert, longing for the Promised Land, I am compelled to help others escape the desert at their earliest opportunity. The desert landscape can be a marriage, a prodigal child, chronic illness, bad neighbors, unemployment.

We each face struggles that God allows because He is busily crafting our character to Christ’s likeness. But for me, I languished for way too many years in the land of envy.

Envy: A feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for the possessions or qualities of another.

I looked around and saw husbands who attended church with his wife and children.
~I wanted that.
I knew husbands who read their Bible, regularly.
~I wanted that.
I knew husbands who actually prayed with their wife…. Every day…
~I soooooo wanted that.

Envy is a waste of time.

Mate comparison is a toxic occupation and one I must continually surrender to Christ. I spent way too many years in the comparison camp, pining with envy.

Over the years I have discovered that behind every marriage is a relationship. There is a private relationship between a man and a woman that no one else sees. I have yet to meet a married couple who hasn’t struggled in their marriage at one time or another.

Just recently on my blog, I lamented about a disappointment in my marriage. I felt justified in my dissatisfaction and therefore was completely humbled when this comment arrived:

Your story made me pause… I had just celebrated a precious date with my husband of 8 years.. He said he loved me more than when we first met. Chris told me, that I was a great wife and perfect mother for our girls, ages 2, 4, and 6.. Three days later he was in a plane crash and God took him home………That was 12 years ago. I lost my husband and best friend that day… So please ladies take time to enjoy that husband of yours…. God is in control and he just wants us to SIMPLY TRUST him.. When we fret that is the enemy trying to steal our joy……..peace and hugs to you all. Kathy

Gulp!

God gave me a wonderful man. Not perfect but neither am I.

When we start down that road of comparison and envy is tapping us on the shoulder, we must take those thoughts captive to Christ and remember what rich blessings we already have. God wastes nothing and although it may appear life is unfair, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8.28 (NIV)

So hang on to your problems because I can guarantee if we could see what others are dealing with, we would, in deed, grab ours back.

Thank you for sharing a few minutes with me. I would love to pray for you. Visit me at spirituallyunequalmarriage.com. Be blessed, Lynn
Find me daily at