Lessons from My 98-year-old Dad: Keep Calm and Carry On

by Marilynn Chadwick

“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him’.”

Genesis 2:18

During our growing up years, Mom was more than just Dad’s companion. She was what the Bible refers to in Genesis 2:18 as his “helper.” The original word in Hebrew is ezer, which means a strong, often heroic, source of support. Mom was both strong and kind and she was Daddy’s rock.

Mom stopped teaching school when the kids came—family was everything to her. She especially loved Dad’s parents and his three sisters and their families. Dad’s job required quite a bit of travel, but Mom never complained. She kept life going for her three daughters. But invariably, most of our life crises seemed to hit when Daddy was away. Like the time I tried to do a cannonball dive into three feet of water and didn’t tuck quite fast enough, hitting my head on the bottom of the swimming pool. After Mom and I took a fast trip to the emergency room and 27 stitches later, Daddy finally made it home.

Recently, when I asked Daddy to describe my mom’s strength, he pointed back to that incident. “I never worried when I was traveling,” he said. “Even when you cracked your head open, I could always count on your mom to handle things. She was always so calm.”

Daddy’s right. Mom honored him through her strong resolve and her ability to keep the family on track. The popular World War II expression “Keep Calm and Carry On” was originally created to inspire the Brits to keep up their courage during the war. And I think it also describes my mom quite well.

Mom and Dad suffered two especially hard losses as a young couple. When I was two, Mom delivered a near term baby girl who died shortly after she was born. Today’s neonatal technology could easily have saved the baby. I have no memories of this incident.

Tragically, the very same thing happened again when I was five. This one I vividly remember. There were two of us girls now. My sister Susan and me. Mom went into premature labor again and delivered a baby—another nearly full-term baby girl, who died soon after birth. Mom, just 28 at the time, somehow managed to keep life moving forward. She had a quiet, but deep faith. I’m sure it was her faith that gave her the strength to persevere. She and Daddy kept hope alive, and two years later welcomed my youngest sister, Janice, whose name means “God’s gracious gift,” into our family.

When I look back at those times in my mother’s life, I don’t know how she kept going. I’m amazed at how Mom and Dad refused to allow those terrible losses to overwhelm our lives as children. They didn’t retreat to fear or hold us back from an active and happy childhood. They bravely kept moving forward—for us. Evidence, again, of their courageous and enduring faith.

For more inspiration and to learn about honor within marriage, click here to download a free copy of Eight Great Ways to Honor Your Husband by Marilynn Chadwick and

Eight Great Ways to Honor Your Wife by David Chadwick.

Lessons from My 98-year-old Dad: Honor Your Wedding Vows

by Marilynn Chadwick

“Let marriage be held in honor among all…”

Hebrews 13:4a

When people meet my 98-year-old dad, they often ask me, “What’s his secret?” “How does he look so young and stay so sharp?” Daddy would be the first to tell you that part of his secret is that he had a great wife. When my mom went home to be with the Lord three years ago, she and my dad had been married just shy of 70 years.

My mother was bedridden for the last ten of those years. A ruptured appendix and complications from subsequent surgeries robbed the once robust grandmother of her ability to walk. Some of her ability to think and talk also faded. But enough of her brilliant mind remained, so that conversation was possible, though difficult. Daddy insisted upon caring for her at home with the help of nurses’ aides to help him with wheelchair transfers and daily care.

If you asked them, Mom and Dad would each say they “married up.” Mom would always tell us three girls how lucky she was to find Daddy. And Dad said he was just glad his “turn in line” with the other young men who wanted to date Mom finally came. To which Mom would answer back, “Well I was hoping you would ask me out!” One afternoon, near the end of her life, Daddy looked at my mom, lying in the bed after he had just brushed her hair, and said to me, “Doesn’t she look pretty?”

Few can imagine the daunting challenges Mom and Dad faced on a daily basis just so she could live at home. Daddy did the grocery shopping, the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry. There were medical procedures he performed each day. Catheters, baths, diapers. There were occasional trips to the emergency room and hospitalization because of infections.

In good times and in hard times, Mom and Dad honored their wedding vows. That, just by itself, is a beautiful legacy which they passed on to David and me, to our children, and their children. But there is so much more.

Sometimes when we’re in the middle of daily life, we don’t realize the truly heroic nature of the people right in front of us. It all seems so normal at the time. As I reflect, I feel enormous gratitude for my parents’ sacrifices that paved the way for the life I have today. And especially for my faith, my family, and my freedom.

Daddy and I are working together to collect and preserve these and other memories. We’re also including important life lessons he learned as a World War II era submarine sailor. My dad especially wants to pass on this legacy to his great grandchildren, and as he puts it, “anyone else who will listen.” So, over the next two weeks, I’ll be sharing life lessons I’ve learned from my dad.

For more inspiration and to learn about honor within marriage, click here to download a free copy of

Eight Great Ways to Honor Your Husband by Marilynn Chadwick and

Eight Great Ways to Honor Your Wife by David Chadwick.

Characters at the Cradle: The Wise Men, Guided to God’s Perfect Light

by David Chadwick

Matthew 2:19-23 is how we will wrap up our study of the Wise Men. Today also completes our eight-week series where we have looked at the many characters who found themselves connected to the cradle of Jesus.

Herod finally died in 4 A.D. While in Egypt, an angel of the Lord appeared once again to Joseph in a dream. He told Joseph that it was now safe to return to Israel. Joseph rose and went back to Nazareth in Israel.

As I have heard my daughter say to her children, obedience brings blessing, and disobedience brings discipline. Thankfully, once again, Joseph obeyed. Immediately. Fully. Completely. At this point in Joseph’s life, he was very skilled in hearing the Lord and responding with both obedience and faith.

Joseph heard that Archelaus, Herod’s son, was now ruling over Judea, and he was not a good guy either. So, Joseph was afraid to go back to Bethlehem. Then it appears in verse 22 that Joseph may have had another dream with a warning that caused him to go to the district of Galilee. Back they went, specifically to Nazareth, the town where Mary and Joseph lived before Jesus’s birth.

You know there must have been some hesitation with this decision. Mary and Joseph had to live among many whispers that this child had been conceived before marriage. Others may have wondered if Mary had committed adultery.

These rumors and shadows would always be there in Jesus’s life and upbringing. But at least they had familiarity there, a carpentry business, something they most assuredly did not have in Egypt. And in spite of knowing the whispers surrounding them, they still obeyed! Perhaps this return to Nazareth would, in part, fulfill the prophecy that said that the Messiah would be despised and rejected (Isaiah 53:3).

We also know that Nazareth was despised in the time of Jesus (John 1:46). But this part of the story shows, once again, that God can take the most despised, broken, insignificant people and places and use them for his glory. He does not need ability, but availability.

Mary and Joseph were available. The Wise Men were available. And most of all, Jesus was available. And through all of these characters’ availability, the world was forever and positively changed through a baby in a cradle. And from that moment on, the ministry of Jesus was ready to begin! Explore it further in your own study as you come face to face with the MAIN character at the cradle… Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior of the world.