After messing up my kitchen - my DH came in for a visit. He usually hangs out in the basement where he works most of the day, Every once in a while he surfaces. Am I ever glad he surfaced on Friday. I laughed about how cooking totally exhausts me. He knows. He has been married to me for 36 years! Send me to the yard. There I can dig, plant, weed, mow, mulch, trim... and NEVER tire. I am alergic to the kitchen.
Guess what my DH did? He offered to clean up the kitchen. He made my day! His love language is acts of service. I LOVE the gifts he gives me- little projects that make my life easy.
Yesterday - Sunday - I had a Merry Christmas day. Our little family of three went to church and then we went out to lunch with a friend whose husband is a pilot. He was flying. We treated her son, my son, and three other home-from-college friends to lunch. I felt so honored to sit at the same table with such fine young men.
As I looked at these guys - non of them perfect mind you, but each a child of God and a product of Christian homes, I thanked God for His wise words to me. I am thankful I believed Him early on that I needed to do my homework - "raise my sons in the fear and admonishion of the Lord."
It is so much easier to discipline little boys than it is to scold and punish young teen men.
If I don't get a gift at all this year - I am content with my husband's acts of service and my son's progress on the growth chart - not the physical one, but the emotional and spiritual chart.
As we sat around the table I saw how my investment of time and lessons in boundaries had paid off. I looked at my son and his friends and, although God has not finished with them, I could clearly see the good work blooming within each soon-to-be man.
Good Christian Men Rejoice
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3 comments:
Hi, Van! Thanks for reminding me to be thankful for the faithfulness God has shown me in allowing me to watch my children grow in more ways than just height! I can't imagine being in your shoes and looking at an all-grown young man across the table where my little boy used to be. It sounds like you have done a good job! I hope your son and his friends had fun skiing at Snowshoe Mountain! It is a lovely little resort and is about three hours from where I live. I'm not a big skier, myself, but have been down the mountain a few times!
Blessings to you!
Laura
Gifts of material things are not even on the radar screen of importance. I'd much rather receive and give gifts that, like you've shared here, speak love language. None of us "need" one more thing.
What a blessing it is the see our children walking in truth (3 John 4). It just doesn't get any better than that!
It is a concept hard to follow yet bears more truth.