Me And The Mrs. Series

ballroom. So I got to my dressing room and I went out and did the first runway thing, came back,

changed clothes, went out again and came back and looked at the next one and I thought, Oooh, I don’t really think I want to wear that. So I decided to look at the rest of them. They were all kind of lined up. You could just kind of see the next one as you went. They were all lined up, and as I looked, they got progressively worse as I got closer to the wall.

AS: Not worse, like ugly.

SS: Right. Just less and less appropriate. And so I just decided this isn’t something I want to

continue to do. So I found the lady in charge and I felt terrible and it was awkward, and I said, “I

am so, so sorry. I don’t feel comfortable wearing those outfits and you can keep your money. I

know this puts you in an awkward position. I’m very sorry.” And that was the end of that. I left,

and I didn’t do anything except Apparel Mart stuff after that.

AS: So we’re driving along and she’s telling me this story. Now, young ladies and not so

younger ladies, I’ve got to tell you. In a world where everybody’s racing down that runway to do

that, to be in the car with this college student who said, No, I’m not going to do that, I’m telling

you, my respect just went right out the roof, and I thought, Wow—because that’s a guardrail. Is

it a sin to model? No, it’s probably just a bunch of ladies there, anyway. It was to prepare for a

costume ball or something. So, it would’ve been so easy just to say, “Oh, it’s not a big deal; it’s

not a big deal.” But I’m telling you, when I heard that, just something happened inside of me.

What we didn’t anticipate then, because it was our first date, was that that would be a story that

one day she would be able to share with our teenaged daughter to say, hey, when there’s

temptation and when there’s pressure, when the whole culture is going this way, there are times

that was like a really big deal. So, again, we feel like the whole idea of personal standards that

you tie your conscience to really direct us to each other, and we could tell you some more stories.

We got married and lived over in Cobb County in a two-bedroom condo that I already had. One

morning not too long after we’re married, I’m having my quiet time and I’m reading the book of

Proverbs, reading one Proverb a day like I suggested that you do from time to time, and I ran

across this verse, and the word just kind of jumped off the page, and this sort of became a life

verse for our entire marriage or relationship. Here’s what it said.

Proverbs 27:12 (TNIV)

12 The prudent see danger [You may have heard me teach on this before.] and take

refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

And this is a guardrail verse, because the verse says the prudent see danger and then they back

off. The simple or the naïve, they just keep going and they suffer for it. So I shared this verse