High School Love

Church service was good today and spoke to my heart. Pastor talked about loving our enemies coming from the book of Luke. He also addressed making a choice, a decision to choose the way of the Lord or continue in your own way.

The sermon lead to me mentioning to my husband something that happened earlier this week that blew my mind (and not in a good way). All I could say to the matter was, "Lawd, take the wheel because I can't." Doug had to take our oldest to work and I took myself and the other two to church and he was going to meet up with us later on. Needless to say, we drove two separate vehicles. I just wanted to be sure I was clear to go into the subject that I want to share with you today.

When service was over, my husband and I walked together to the truck and I gave the keys to my second oldest to drive us home (since he asked before walking into church). He walked ahead of me and Doug which gave us a chance to talk and to share with him what was on my mind. When I told him what happened, he just laughed and gave his insight on what he thought about the situation.

As we were approaching the truck, he informed me that he was parked at the other parking lot and he was just walking me to my truck. Outside I didn't make a facial expression but inside I was like a gitty school girl whose boyfriend walked her to class even if it made him late to his and was out of his way. I thought to myself, "I still have a high school love." I just gleamed on the inside.

God knows how to make us smile and knows the right person to use to bring that smile upon our faces. I just thought I'd share this story because it meant a lot to me and maybe just maybe a husband will read this and make his wife feel like a gitty school girl too :).

The Importance of Listening

My prayer concerning my marriage is always, "Lord, show me how to minister to my husband." The prayer is always the same but how to minister changes day by day. It is so important to pray that prayer. Let me share a story with you...

Last week and part of the week before was very stressful for my husband which made things stressful in the home and it didn't help that I've been stressed out myself. I was trying to make him laugh, lure him with my feminine whiles (lol) and or just to let him be but none of it was working. I wanted to do something for him and knew something had to be done but didn't know quite what I should do.

Like I mentioned in the above statement what my prayer is always, it was on my heart more and more. God didn't speak to me like he did Moses with the burning bush or by a donkey speaking in the middle of the road; He showed me through a Facebook feed. One of the marriage ministries I'm following said, "Pack up some things and take your spouse away for the weekend!" It was that simple and I almost missed it but said to myself, "Ah, ha!" I knew what God was doing (after it dawned on me). The next day we received in the mail a coupon for 15% off a hotel room. It was then I sprung into action like Elasta-Girl (in the Incredibles Disney movie)! I began thinking of plans of where we could go and checking out the travel agent's itinerary. They had nothing (that we could do at the time). Next on my list was to check the weather and it was supposed to rain all weekend but I said, "God, I'm going to trust you with the weather" and proceeded to put my focus on a beach. I made a phone call to my sister to watch after the children and it worked out. I let our kids know what was going on and they were not to say anything due to this being a surprise. My oldest was a little bothered that I had someone staying with them because he is 18 years old. I told him to get over it (because we all know how that goes...18...alone...over the weekend...yeah right!). I am not that slow (lol).

Any who, Saturday morning came and it was perfect how I set it up to leave the house. Mind you, this is a surprise and the brotha messed it up. He got up to take our second oldest son to his school for a track meet and then he came back home and got in the bed. I was laughing to myself because this was not the plan. He said he was going to run to the store and get started on prep for the weekend dinner. Now I had to come up with some kind of way to get him out of the bed. Well, the only thing I could do was to tell him that I needed to talk to him about something important and take him out to breakfast. Relunctantly, he got up and rolled slowly out of the bed (which was messing up my time table). In the midst of everything, I managed to sneak the suitcase in the car and set everything in motion with the children.

Finally, we made it to the car and we're rolling. He asked me what I wanted to talk about and I told him that I noticed he's on edge and I wanted him to be able to talk to me and just to get it all off his chest. What in the world did I say that for!?! Because he went in (lol). As he shared what was on his mind, in his heart and on his chest I had to bite my tongue because I wasn't ready (lol)...whew...I wasn't ready but do you know what the Lord said to me? He said, "Let him vent. Let him be himself. This is ministry." I was like wow so I continued to listen and even tried to make him smile through it. After he finished we pulled up to Huddle House (even the Lord spoke to me then to go there). He orchestrated every single move, every single moment. We sat down and it was then I told him what my plans were for the weekend. He gave a smirk, placed his head in his hands and sat back. I told him he didn't have to worry about anything because I have everything taken cared of. He was so relaxed. We talked in general about things, ate then left. I told him to take a nap while I finished driving us to Jacksonville, FL. He laid his seat back, listened to MadDog Radio and went to sleep (even snored a little).

We arrived to the hotel (not the one with the percentage off but still received a discount). It was a newly opened establishment and it was nice and the customer service was good. We got up to the room and took a nap then got up and headed towards the beach. The weather was great, hot and sunny. God worked it out!

Needless to say, we had a wonderful weekend. He called me from work on the following Monday and told me to take him back to Jacksonville (lol). His whole attitude changed. The entire atmosphere changed. The temperment of the home changed. His outlook changed. His focused changed.

This is what I desire for you to understand; it's very important to listen to your spouse and God, also  to pay attention to the atmosphere of your home. It's not up to circumstances and situations to dictate our atmosphere, our marriages, our homes or family. It's up to us by listening to God and opening up a dialogue in prayer asking the Father, "Please show me how to minister to my spouse."