One of the most amazing women in recent history died. My concern is that she will not be remembered for her strength (she told Billy that if he ran for president she would leave him and then no one would vote for a divorced man) but for her decisions that don’t fit into today’s accepted expectations. From the NYTimes, for example:
By RICHARD SEVERO
Published: June 15, 2007
But like many women of her generation, Mrs. Graham felt strongly that it was her duty to place her husband and family first, no matter the personal sacrifice. Before she married Mr. Graham in August 1943, she wrote: “If I marry Bill, I must marry him with my eyes open. He will be increasingly burdened for lost souls and increasingly active in the Lord’s work. After the joy and satisfaction of knowing that I am his by rights, and his forever, I will slip into the background.”“In short,” she added, “be a lost life. Lost in Bill’s.”
The truth is that they both committed their lives to serving Christ, wholly and completely. In the last 10 years or so they both wrote about having made mistakes in assuming that God would want even their families to suffer on behalf of their ministry. I wonder if any of us today have their same commitment and fervor.
Mrs. Graham was at peace with the life she had chosen. “I knew from the very beginning that I would never be first place in his life,” she told The Ladies Home Journal. “Christ would be first.”
Wife of Rev. Billy Graham Dies at 87 – New York Times
