24 Nov 2008
Following is the speech that my father, Craig Smith, gave at the reception:
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have witnessed in my own household the most remarkable sequence of events, developments which, on a day to day basis only occasionally attracted notice. But over time they have amounted to a tidal wave of change, a massive paradigm shift.
Genevieve went from being a gung-ho pursuer of academic excellence and qualifications, striving for notoriety and to make earth-shattering changes in both the people and the environments around her; from being a power dresser who acted as a bailiff for a law firm, serving subpoenas and debt collections with harshness, firmness and intimidation. She was good. Then she returned from her two years in the USA, where she had quite an encounter with the Lord, so much so that even Doug Phillips of Vison Forum told me, “I think Genevieve had a sort of epiphany while she was here.” Amen to that.
Upon her return, Genevieve immediately set about lifting jobs from my shoulders. One was debt collecting from the dark days, now happily gone, when we were landlords. “I can do that,” she told me. “I’ve done it heaps.” Before the day was out she was returning the papers to me with the apology that she just couldn’t face doing it anymore. That I could understand.I hated doing it. But the thing that struck me was that Genevieve knew precisely why she couldn’t do it any more: it wasn’t the kind of job the model of a Proverbs 31 Godly woman, toward which she was striving to become, was meant to be doing. Debt collecting was calling upon her to take on masculine, aggressive characteristics that she no longer wanted to have.
Genevieve has always been a good communicator. At her birth, when the weighing and bathing were completed and Barbara was taken away for a shower, Genevieve and I were left alone in the room. I bent over and talked quietly about how the Lord God was going to bless her and our future together. She fixed her eyes on me, folks, and while she didn’t say much, we communicated.
She has worked on communication especially hard in the last few years: to be clear, concise, endeavouring to recruit people to her position by employing the communication principles the Bible commends: graciousness, friendliness, respect, yet not compromising on matters of urgency and moral non-negotiables. When she was nine, she wrote a letter to the New Zealand Minister of Finance, David Caygill, who had introduced a bill to tax children’s bank accounts. I explained this Bill to her and on her own she promptly wrote a scorching letter saying to the Minister,
I think it’s disgraceful that you are taxing our savings, so calm your greedy fingers down a little.
The Opposition spokesman on Finance, Ruth Richardson, was sent a copy of this letter and she immediately invited Genevieve to Parliament for what turned out to be a Press Conference. Genevieve had three points to tell Ms Richardson. She explained the first one and then Ruth launched into some political speech for the benefit of the rolling cameras. Genevieve reached out her hand and laid it on Ruth’s arm, stopping her speech. “Yes, Genevieve?” “I haven’t finished yet. I have two more points.”
So when Genevieve returned from the USA, she then set about changing her personal habits of speech.and controlling the way she responded or reacted to things.and how she dressed.and she re-evaluated her relationship with each other member of the family and strove to improve them in any way that it was possible for her to do. When the rest of us would blurt out criticism of some family member’s actions or words, with a harsh or sarcastic edge in our voices, Genevieve would pause for a moment and consider how better to respond. Then you would see a master at work as she gently and yet authoritatively and yet submissively would sort of suggest yet sort of guide the person to see the situation in a different light. She could do that with her siblings; she could do that with me. It has been remarkable to watch.
And most remarkable of all is that when she received unjust and undeserved criticism and even vitriol from siblings or those outside the family, she would respond with gentle, loving kindness. It was Romans 12:21 in action where it says, “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.”
As the years ticked by and all the predictable buzz about her getting older and being left on the shelf floated around- insensitivities endured by plenty of women in this very room-Genevieve determined not to be affected by it. So what should she be focussed on in the meantime? Pursuing academic excellence and practical excellence in the things to which she-like the general calling to all women of God-has been called: to be a helpmeet. And I and her mother have been the prime beneficiaries of this wife and mother and homemaker in training as she took over the shopping, budgeting, tidying up, menu planning, cooking, child rearing and even parts of the home education.not to mention the accounting, correspondence, editing, typesetting, proofreading and so forth for the Home Education Foundation. And she still had time to start up an international weekly newsletter plus bookselling business. And pattern drafting and sewing lessons and bread-making classes and cooking with herbs lessons. The latest was to take massage lessons to ease Pete’s weary shoulders after a hard day’s work.
Back in ’04 when our son Zach set the date for his marriage to his lovely wife Megan in the USA, Genevieve and Charmagne hatched the plot for them to go over a couple months early and work for Megan’s dad in order to earn the cash to help pay for the rest of the family to get over there for the wedding. The name of the game is making personal sacrifices in order to advance the interests of others. And Pete! When I had the privilege of first getting to know Pete, I found a guy so remarkable I couldn’t help but say to everyone I met, “I thought they’d stopped making people like Pete!”
He would routinely undersell himself, but as I scratched his surface, all I ever found was pure gold. I cannot say I’ve ever seen before, embodied in one person, such discipline, talent, creativity, commitment to what is right, and a vision for godly dominion over the earth through unwavering habits of honest, debt-free work to a high standard of excellence. And Pete is a communicator too! When he first came to visit and stayed for 10 days, Pete and I stayed up late nearly every night talking about things.he’d report on his impressions, would ask advice about how he was coming across, wonder if he was too forward or not paying enough attention to others; I’d probe his background; we’d discuss Genevieve’s many attributes. Pete was a thorough gentleman and went out of his way to pay respect to us all and especially to honour Barbara and I as Genevieve’s parents. This was a good move. It set him way out there on his own. It won our hearts.
And very early every next morning, Genevieve and I would take a long walk and discuss the many new and exciting attributes of Pete’s that we had each discovered since our last talk together. Folks, these were exciting times!
There was a landowner on a steep hill early last century who needed to hire a man to drive his family down the switchback trail to town now and again. Three applicants turned up, and he took them to the sharpest curve with the steepest drop. He asked the first applicant how close he reckoned he could drive the coach to the edge of the curve without going over. The young fellow eyed up the curve, kicked at the dirt and announced he could get to within 12 inches.
The landowner posed the same question to the second applicant who made a similar survey and boasted that he could surely get those coach wheels to about six inches from the edge. When the third applicant was asked what he thought he could do, he replied, “Well, sir, I don’t know how close I could get, and I’m not really interested in finding out. If I’m to drive your family down this hill, I’m going to keep the horses and the coach as far to the inside of the curve and to safety as I possibly can.” The landowner’s instantaneous response was, “Son, you’re hired!”
Tying that tale back into my speech, I’ll say this: Pete and Genevieve have taken a similar approach to their physical interaction during this courtship and engagement period-I mean they’ve discussed these kinds of things at length-you know, instead of seeing how close they could get without falling off the cliff, they’d see how far apart. Hey, this engagement period ended today.you’re married now! Man, you’re going to have to come up with a new strategy for physical interaction.
During their courtship, Pete would initiate only such things as they both knew would please God, pass muster with both sets of parents and that would not cause either of them the slightest twinge of conscience now or later. They did not take every opportunity to hive off alone somewhere but stayed close to the family. Genevieve was always dressed so elegantly. Pete was never seen without collar and tie. Pete would ask my permission to take Genevieve out for a walk into town. These actions, in pursuit of holiness, righteousness and purity, have not only secured a greater level of love and trust in one another, greatly enhancing their future married life, it has secured the everlasting thankfulness and blessing of their parents, Henk & Sue, Barbara and myself.
Pete & Genevieve, may the Lord our God richly reward and honour you for doing your utmost to honour Him.
For the Greater Glory of God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
Genevieve de Deugd
Issacharian Wife
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