As some of you know, I am recovering from an operation and I asked my son Peter to share his journey with you on my blog! Enjoy! Jim Stobaugh

In March 2009, Peter Stobaugh, Karen and James’ youngest of four children, joined full-time in the ministry. Peter graduated from Grove City College in May of 2008 with a degree in Entrepreneurship. He immediately moved overseas to South Africa to work with the Xhosa tribes. Upon returning to the states, Peter felt God leading him to take a larger role in running For Such A Time As This, enabling Dr. Stobaugh to focus on writing and teaching his distance learning students.

Recently, I’ve made one of the most impacting choices of my life. I asked a cute redhead to marry me. And in case you’re wondering if she fulfills every sort of stereotype for redheads, well, possibly. I’m thinking of integrating t-shirts into our wardrobes that say “Mr. Right” and “Mrs. Always Right”. Just kidding!

What’s funny about being engaged is how I can’t walk by people without glancing to see if they are wearing a ring or not. Playing into such girly tendencies is not my normal protocol. It’s compulsive for things of myself to glare so brilliantly in the lives of others, the good and bad. “Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me remove the speck from your eye; and look, a plank is in your own eye?” – Jesus Christ

Similar to the ring, I’ve begun to observe my peers around me and discover how difficult it is for my culture to make any decision encumbered with even a minimal level of commitment—much less a commitment to be married!

Two of my closest friends, Rutherford and Wilson, and I, are all in similar stages in life: graduates of college, establishing ourselves in a workforce, and all have that special someone we are considering for marriage. Each of our upbringings and life experiences all are rather common relative to each other and to our culture.

We three grew up in middle class homes spending our summers in the woods and winters plummeting down treacherous hills on flimsy sleds. High school made each of us stars in our own realms on the varsity soccer field. It was then that things began to change. We each began developing our own sets of beliefs and lenses to view the world. Going to separate colleges we began growing more unique from one another but still, all three of us were struck deep and hard by special ladies.

“At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.”- Plato

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 9:30 am and is filed under Choices, Conviction, Culture, Family, Graduates, Marriage, The Stobaugh’s. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.