Oh My Marriage!

So our summer at Word of Life has ended and feelings are mixed as we retire as parents to 150 pubescent adolescents and begin again in the “real world.” With all this packing and unpacking  I have discovered a new love for boxes. That’s right, I am a lover of boxes. Big boxes, little boxes, boxes that close, boxes that don’t…boxes. I was discussing this very thing with my friend Mary Beth who also has a fetish for  boxes. In the last couple of years she has  packed and unpacked her family of 5 numerous times, coming to a new appreciation of those over sized boxes appliances always seemed to be housed in. We both have box envy and if we stumble across a box we first contemplate its packing potential, and then decide if we can successfully steal it.

Anyway, off that train.

So we are packing up boxes of pictures and books and books and books…and something is different. There is a man following me around, packing his stuff with my stuff, sleeping in my bed. The seconds of longing for my husband, who my mind tricked me into believing was going to leave like all the past summers, was met with little tingles in my tummy ( and no, its not the hpylori) as I realized that I get to keep him! You mean I can take him home with me? I don’t have to box him up and send him first class across the country! I was going to get to take this handsome man home with me?

Like forever?

That’s right, the most challenging part of my summer is coming home with me and I can only praise the Lord that He will continue to sanctify me through the grace, forgiveness and longsuffering of my wonderful husband.

The challenging part is a reference to my often contentious disposition which must often receive a whipping from the MIGHTY Spirit. Oh how thankful I am that the Spirit is no weakling, otherwise my husband might soon choose to sleep on the corner of a roof instead of in our cozy new apartment.

I am thankful that I get to take him home.

Marriage at this point can be summed up in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, who I must have been kin to seeing as how I share all the same wonderful qualities.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

How thankful I am that I have an example of love, grace, long suffering, kindness and forgiveness in my Savior for without it my husband might choose the rooftop rather than the bed.

We have a tradition we like to call give me 5. When either one asks this question the other responds with 5 praises. So tonight I will offer 5 for my husband.

1. He loves and fears God

2. He is a servant (as a matter of fact as I write this at 12:27 am he is over at my cousins helping them paint their new townhouse.

3. He is a people person (I tend to scare people away at first, he can draw them into anything!)

4. He loves the Word of God

5. He is the perfect size for cuddling and I fit so nicely into all his nooks.

So praise the Lord for marriage and all its exciting and difficult times.