This week will be my daughter's 18th birthday. Who woulda thunk it? Years ago, when I told my mother that I was getting married, her reply was, "Well, that's fine, David, but you ought not to have any children. You are old and set in your ways, and you wouldn't have enough patience to deal with them." (I was 33 at the time.) She continued, "God was very smart in letting us have children when we are young, because that's the only time in our lives when we have enough energy to handle them."

HA! Well, we DID have children, and I have had a wonderful time with them. So THERE, Mother!

A ways back, I had the honor and privilege of officiating at my mom's second marriage after many years of widowhood. She was 74 at the time. As we stood in the sacristy awaiting the time to enter the sanctuary,…