CBN's First Lady Speaks

DEDE ROBERTSON: Almost 49.

SCOTT ROSS: You do realize that that is half of a century! Can we say that out loud? Half a century with one person. Pat recently came through a challenge, to say the least. When you got that little bit of news, what was your response?

DEDE ROBERTSON: My immediate response was, 'What will we do now?' The Lord just really miraculously gave me peace and I knew that He was in control.

SCOTT ROSS: This is the man who talks about health. He is healthy. He lifts weights. He rides horses. We won't even begin to think about the shakes and pancakes! [laughter]

DEDE ROBERTSON: That's right! [laughter]

SCOTT ROSS: But that's a bit of a shock, isn't it?

DEDE ROBERTSON: It was a bit of a shock. And, of course, he had buried his brother just a year ago with the same thing.

SCOTT ROSS: You are a registered nurse. You are actually a trained nurse. You taught nursing, right?

DEDE ROBERTSON: Right.

SCOTT ROSS: Let's talk a little bit about balance between use of doctors and going to see your doctor and getting check-ups and faith. Some people go to extremes and say, 'I never see a doctor. I just trust God.' Where is the balance between trusting God completely and/or going to the doctor, and on the other side of the spectrum, those who don't necessarily pray but just run to the doctor? Where is the balance?

DEDE ROBERTSON: The balance is that I believe the Lord has given doctors skills. If it is something that a doctor can take care of, fine. If it is not something that a doctor can take care of, only the Lord can take care of it. I had a bout with cancer and I went to the doctor and did everything that I was told me to do. That was 16 years ago.

SCOTT ROSS: You are clean? You are fine?

DEDE ROBERTSON: I am fine. Of course, there was a lot of prayer there, too. I think you need both.

SCOTT ROSS: October/November 1974. This is The Flame [Scott holds up the issue of the publication]. Do you remember this?

DEDE ROBERTSON: I remember The Flame.

SCOTT ROSS: [pointing at a picture of Pat] He has a lot of hair here. I don't see any gray ones. Here it is. [Reading from the publication] Dede Remembers the Faithfulness of the Lord. Let me just read you something. 'When our fourth child' -- who was Anne, or Annie, as some of us who know her -- was about to be born, he stopped at the post office on the way to the hospital. He started to read the mail inside the post office while I am sitting waiting in the car.'

DEDE ROBERTSON: In labor!

SCOTT ROSS: In labor? How did you put up with this stuff?

DEDE ROBERTSON: I asked the Lord to let me have the baby right there and then.

SCOTT ROSS: In the car while he was reading the mail in the post office? And when he came back out, you had a new kid! Congratulations, Pat! [laughter]

DEDE ROBERTSON: [laughter] It didn't work out that way!

SCOTT ROSS: Look at this. [Reading from The Flame] 'All of the children had the measles at the time. It was really chaos, but the Lord was good through it all.'

DEDE ROBERTSON: That's right.

SCOTT ROSS: For women who have to live with husbands who do some zany things, how have you had the grace to do this all these years?

DEDE ROBERTSON: Well, as I recall telling a group of women at one time when I was on one of my speaking engagements, just hang in there. It does get better.

SCOTT ROSS: So you are encouraging them. Don't run off after the first thing that happens. It is a challenge. OK, looking back over the years, is there anything you would do differently?

DEDE ROBERTSON: I think if I had it to do over, I would pay less attention to picking up the house, even though that is what my husband wants me to do, and spend more time playing with the children.

SCOTT ROSS: What is the legacy that Dede Robertson leaves?

DEDE ROBERTSON: Four wonderful children.

SCOTT ROSS: [laughter] Somehow I knew you might say that. And when you look at them now -- Tim, Elizabeth, Gordon, Anne, and their children -- is that the most fulfilling thing in your life?

DEDE ROBERTSON: It probably is because I am seeing them instilling in their children a lot of the same things that I instilled in my children, and this is good. They are perhaps doing it even more than I did. They are emphasizing things that I tried to emphasize but perhaps did not achieve the success that I was looking for.

SCOTT ROSS: Now, here is the big question: Going back 50 years, would you do it again? Would you marry the same man?

DEDE ROBERTSON: I probably would.

SCOTT ROSS: So, ultimately, no regrets? You made the right choice?

DEDE ROBERTSON: I made the right choice. The more I think about it, the more I realize that the Lord brought us together and He had a purpose in it.