Hi, this is Ken Tada and welcome to “Joni and Friends”!
Joni: Thank you, Ken Tada. I love it whenever you come into the recording studio to sit down at the microphone with me. God bless you friend, husband, brother. Oh, my goodness. Yes he does bless me. He’s blessed me because of you – he really has. Especially these past few weeks and let me explain to our listeners why.
Ken and I have a lot of help: “get up girls” and “get down girls” who assist me in getting up in the morning or they assist me in taking off my makeup and helping me into bed at night. But one of these get up/get down girls, my good friend, Judy, with whom I’ve worked for over 30 years, and who’s been helping me get up every Sunday morning plus she does my really, really, really personal care routines. Well about four weeks ago she fell and broke her hip and so Judy has been out of commission and boy that has left a big hole in our group of get up/get down girls, hasn’t it, Ken?
Ken: It has, but God has given us grace.
Joni: And He has helped you, with His grace, really step up to the plate.
Ken: Big time!
Joni: Big time! I mean it. Friends listening here is a man who now is getting up every single night to turn me in bed – you want to explain about that?
Ken: Well, Joni, over the years you cannot sleep on one side for the whole evening or night, so you have to turn from one side to the other and that means tucking your pillows and waking up at odd hours.
Joni: You’ve got a good attitude! Even at 2 a.m. in the morning
Ken: Umm, not all the time.
Joni: Well, to me you do. Plus you are filling in for Judy and doing those very personal, personal care routines and it’s kind of a private affair and you have stepped up to the plate. Ken, I love you for it!
Ken: Well, you are very kind, Joni, and we know that it’s only Jesus through me that I can really do this.
Joni: What do you think God has taught you during these last four weeks especially?
Ken: Well, I think He just affirmed what I had believed in the beginning and that is that you are a special gift to me and God has given me the privilege of taking care of you, but I think back in Colossians 3:23 where it says, “Do your work heartily as to the Lord, not as unto men.” And you know what, Joni, even though I’m helping you I’m serving the Lord.
Joni: I love that! And you are not just serving the Lord, you are honoring our marriage vows – “For better or for worse, in sickness and in health," (with “get up girls” with broken hips or not), "till death do us part” you are really stepping up to the plate and honoring or vows and I think that honors God.
Ken: Well I think so too and I think in our society today we don’t honor those vows like we once did.
Joni: Well, you know what? Give a challenge to the men who are listening right now. They might not have quadriplegic wives like you, but what would you tell them?
Ken: Men, marriage is hard! It’s not easy. It takes a lot of work. Joni, you and I were watching an on-line wedding and I thought it was really unusual that the pastor in that wedding was issuing a warning to both the bride and the groom. To the guy he was saying you need to watch out in this world against temptation.
Joni: It was kind of amazing to hear a pastor say that to a newlywed couple, but, wow, how realistic, ‘cause you and I 31 years later we know it’s true, don’t we?
Ken: We definitely know it’s true, that the attack is real. We know where it’s coming from.
Joni: Well, Ken, I think you just encouraged men to be men of the Word and men of their word. Thank you, sweetheart, for not only being a man of God’s Word, but also a man of your own word when you took those marriage vows so many years ago. The past four weeks as our friend Judy is recovering from her broken hip have shown me you are an incredible husband for which I am truly grateful to God! Thanks Ken for being here.
Ken: Thank you, hon, and you are an incredible wife!
Joni: I don’t think so.
Ken: I love you!
Joni: I love you too!
© Joni and Friends, 2013
Compliments of Joni and Friends
PO Box 3333 Agoura Hills, CA 91376