On Father's Day I shared an inspiring story I heard of a couple who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The (true) story takes the form of a letter written by one of the couple's children to a magazine columnist. I heard the story in a sermon preached by Dave Stone circulated as part of the Preaching Today series...
Dear Ann,
Last weekend, we celebrated my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. This morning, they left on a long-awaited trip to
Dad was a policeman and mum was a schoolteacher, and raising five children was a challenge, and sometimes money was short. But no matter what emergency came up, Dad would not let mum take any money out of the
My parents were always very much in love. I can remember Dad coming home and telling mum, ‘I have a dollar in my pocket.’ And she would smile at him and reply, ‘I know just how to spend it.’ And when each of us children married, Mum and Dad gave us each a small metal box, and they told us their secret, which we found inspiring.
Mum and dad never told us how much money they managed to save, but it must have been very considerable, because when the withdrew their money from a special savings account, they had enough money for airfares to Hawaii, hotel accommodation for ten days and plenty of spending money.
Before they boarded the plane, Dad took us kids aside, winked at us and said, ‘Tonight we’re starting an account for