“You have every right to ask me to leave.”
Elisabeth Elliot & Lars Gren
I wasn’t stringing him on. My mind was totally closed to the possibility [of a third marriage]. I thought, “This man could not possibly be serious.” He was just a very kind, polite, southern gentleman…
Listen to Lars and Elisabeth retell their love story in an interview on FamilyLife Today®:
- A Love Story: Lars and Elisabeth Elliot Gren, Part 1
- A Love Story: Lars and Elisabeth Elliot Gren, Part 2
Four more years of widowhood followed and then the third miracle—Lars Gren, a former salesman who in middle life decided that was not the way he wanted to spend the rest of it, and came to seminary to prepare for Christian service. If ever there was a one-man woman I thought it was I, but each milestone of my life has entailed the breaking up of categories. A third husband, Lord? I couldn’t believe this was what God meant, but the Lord knows how to get through to us when we honestly want to know what He wants. As I prayed and pondered the decision, the Holy Spirit brought to my attention the words: Men have different gifts, but it is the same Lord who accomplishes His purposes through them all (see 1 Cor. 12). Gradually it became perfectly clear that Lars was a part of God’s purpose for me. He was a gift God had been trying to give me, but it took awhile to get my attention and to shuffle my categories again from widow to wife, from saying “I” to saying “we.” We were married in 1977.
-Elisabeth Elliot in Love Has a Price Tag
More about Lars and Elisabeth’s story:
- My Visit to Elisabeth Elliot’s Cove from Emily Ellis
- Lars and Elisabeth’s Love Story from Emily Ellis
- Life of Elisabeth Elliot compiled by James Lau
“He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.” So His merciful and miraculous leading is individual—“Thou (singular) shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee.” The temptation is great to imitate or to expect the same manner of guidance which God has given another. “What is that to Thee; follow thou Me.” His Word abounds in examples of His separate leading of His sheep.
(from the journal of Elisabeth Elliot, quoted in Devotedly by Valorie Elliot Shepard)
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