CBN's First Lady Speaks, Part 2

CBN.com She was named Adelia at her birth, but most of her friends just call her Dede. Recently, Scott ross sat down with CBNs First Lady and talked about friendship, aging and submission, among other things.

SCOTT ROSS: As an adjunct to your Bible studies, your husband, and your family, how important are personal relationships and friendships?

DEDE ROBERTSON: For me, theyre very important. I need a good friend, and I have been blessed with several.

SCOTT: People who have been there through the years, who stick with you?

DEDE: I find that in my position that I have to be rather guarded.

SCOTT: Why?

DEDE: Because of who my husband is. But I can talk it over with the Lord.

SCOTT: Does that leave you isolated, lonely?

DEDE: To a certain extent I think it does, but for the most part, I have good friends that love my husband and they love me.

SCOTT: You are now a matriarch. We are all moving down the road of life. How do you deal with the aging process?

DEDE: Aging is not for sissies! It is rough.

SCOTT: In what way?

DEDE: You ache. You cant do the things you used to do. You get tired. Your friends all have ailments, and they all talk about the doctors and the medicines.

SCOTT: You spend 20 minutes talking about those things before you get around to why you are together. Why did we come together? If I could remember I would tell you. (laughs)

DEDE: That is true, too. (laughs)

SCOTT: Is there a point where you stop doing some of these things, where Pat stops doing the things that he is doing?

DEDE: You can't.

SCOTT: You cant?

DEDE: No.

SCOTT: Theres no such thing as retirement in your lexicon?

DEDE: I dont see it. I really don't. There is just no way. For one thing, if he retired, really retired--

SCOTT: Yeah, you would be with him 24 hours a day.

DEDE: --I would find something to do!

SCOTT: (laughs) You mean you would live in the house out back. It would really be difficult because he is a man who is driven by vision and goals.

DEDE: And the telephone rings constantly when he is at home. I do not like the telephone.

SCOTT: I don't either. My wife encourages me to leave the house when I am around too much. She says, 'You are getting into everything. Get out!

DEDE: I would get out! (laughs)

SCOTT: There are times when obviously you and Pat disagree about things. You let him know when you disagree with him.

DEDE: I let him know. He goes ahead and does it, and he regrets it.

SCOTT: (laughs) Does he come back and ask you to forgive him'Dear, you were right'?

DEDE: He doesn't necessarily say 'forgive me, ' but he does say, 'I should have listened. You were right.'

SCOTT: Whats the balance in that one, then? If the husband is the head of the house, I would think that the woman is the heart.

DEDE: It is a question of trusting the Lord.

SCOTT: through him, that He is going to hear God?

DEDE: Yeah, and if he misses God, then he learns from it.

SCOTT: And you are still trusting God?

DEDE: I am still trusting God.

SCOTT: Thats difficult, I would think, for women to do that now because they are not trained that way, they don't think that way. It is a different mindset.

DEDE: I wasnt trained that way either. My mother ruled the house. I saw the mistakes that she made and I made up my mind I wasnt going to do that long before I got married.

SCOTT: Is submission an attitude more than it is a conduct?

DEDE: I think it is an attitude. I think that it is something you can learn. But then it became more fortified as I got into the Word of God.

SCOTT: So do you recommend that for any marriage of those now starting out for wives to be submitted to their husbands as the Scripture says and 'Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her'?

DEDE: If those two things work, youre not going to go looking for a divorce.

SCOTT: We are reaching the world. We are in over 100 nations, in one way or another. If you could choose a nation at this moment, other than the United States, where is your burden, where is your heart?

DEDE: China.

SCOTT: China, just like that. Why?

DEDE: Ever since I was a little girl, and long before I knew the Lord, I wanted to go to China as a missionary, but in my Catholic upbringing, the only missionaries were nuns. I was never called to be a nun.

SCOTT: Well, were grateful. (laugh) So are your children.

DEDE: (laughs) and my grandchildren.

SCOTT: Not to mention your husband.

DEDE: I have always had a love for the Chinese people. I like things Chinese.

SCOTT: When was the first time you went there?

DEDE: 1978 or '79.

SCOTT: Did it fulfill something in you?

DEDE: It did. It was a marvelous experience. They are dear, sweet, wonderful people. Ive met some of the wonderful Chinese people from the underground churches. They put me to shame. They have been to prison. They have been beaten. I heard somebody ask them, 'If you know that you are going to get beaten or thrown in jail, why do you still do it?' Their answer to me was, Jesus died for me. Can I do any less for Him?' That makes you sit up and take note and realize how little you do.