For the Next 50 Years

Tonight, my husband looked over at me as we were doing our routine nightly reading and said:

I love that for the next 50 years, unless something tragic happens, you’ll always be right here.

Do you know how thankful I am for that? If I could tell you all of the millions of things like that he says every day, it would probably bring tears to your eyes. I am beyond blessed to have the most caring, selfless man as my husband. I truly don’t deserve someone who loves this well and fully.

Apart from my salvation, he is the thing I am ultimately most thankful for.

If You Know Me…

…then you know that I have one main goal in life: to be a grandmother. Well this story doesn’t exactly pertain to that goal. But it’s related. So I thought I’d take the opportunity to remind you that I want to be a grandmother.

So I’m in the airport yesterday morning, coming back from a pretty awful weekend (minus a few highlights), and I sit down in my chair. More like I fall into my chair and let it support every muscle in my body after the 15 hour day I worked out in the scorching heat the day before with a five hour total sleep. (Gosh, I love venting on here every now and then!)

Well across from me sit this couple. The man has a sweet, quiet look in his eye, similar to my grandfather. And the woman has painted-on eyebrows. Hehe. A perfect couple.

As they sit there, I just observe how in love they are with one another. They talk intermittently. Each time, it’s with a kind tone. As they continue to sit there, I can just see his love for her in the way he looks at her. She’s reading a pirate book. The author has chosen to plaster his picture on the entire back cover – I hope that the face he’s making is done in jest; otherwise, the guy is a tool. I digress.

The whole time I’m looking at them, I wonder how many years they’ve been married. Probably, they got married when she was 18 and he was 21. They had children the following year and learned that she had a lot of maturing to do. He went out drinking late on nights they got in fights and she told too much to her mom, resulting in several years of awkwardness between he and his in-laws. They barely spoke to each other for about three years when their kids were in high school. Then, slowly but surely, he began to tell her he loved her again. After a couple of years, they started going on regular dates again when the kids moved out.

Now, it’s been 46 years of marriage and they’ve never been more in love. It’s not a hot, spicy, passionate love. It’s a more special type of love. One that knows no better friend, that feels no doubt, that remembers years of steady, faithful relationship. There’s a contentment of knowing everything about each other and loving the other more every single moment.

Again, people watching is probably an unhealthy activity for me. But I can’t help but think what their story is. And I can’t wait until Joel and I are at that point. Taking care of a couple of grandkids when our children go out of town. And looking at each other with that look of utter satisfaction at a life well-lived and well-loved.

Hello Life!

This world we live in moves way too fast for me. I’m starting to realize that, in my natural state, I would move at about a fourth of the pace of everyone I come in contact with in Atlanta. Hopefully that fact doesn’t say something too bad about me, but it’s the truth. Life is at it’s best with me when I can do one thing at a time, not a million tasks at once; when I can take a moment to absorb everything going on around me, not just fly by it only looking straight ahead; when I have the time to take a walk, not be in a car for three hours a day; when I can have a moment at the end of every day to enjoy the company of my loved ones.

Lately, life has just not been like that. I’ve been going a million miles a minute, working an incredible, but extremely fast-paced job, spending 15 hours a week in a car, filling my evenings and weekends with so many plans that it’s hard to find time to sleep. I love my life and having so many wonderful things going on, but it’s time to take a chill pill.

The Lord is good, and in His infinite mercy has provided me a few alternatives lately to the chaotic lifestyle I’ve been used to. Changes are being made every day that give me more time to be the wife I was called to be, the friend I was called to be and the believer I was called to be. Because of these changes, a lot of uncertainty clouds the future. But, I have so much peace that the Lord will provide.

Psalm 119:105 has been on my heart a lot lately: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” What I love about this verse is that it uses such specific language. Not to get into the too nitty-gritty, but a lamp’s light only shines so far, and a “path” typically seems like a short distance, as opposed to the term “journey.” The Psalmist didn’t say, “Your word is a flood light to my feet and a light beam to my entire life’s journey.” All God has promised is to shed a little light on the path right in front of me. He has given me the information I need to know now, the light to see what direction I need to walk in at this very moment. At a certain point, that light fades and I can’t see what’s ahead of me. But I know that He’ll keep shining that light into my immediate path so that I know the next step to take.

There’s such a freedom in that. I’ve always been a planner, but I feel so liberated giving up control {read: worry} of my every move. I’ve lived long enough that I can now see that every little thing I ever worried about always ended up working out for my best. Why would the Lord abandon me now? He knows the plans He has for me and they are for my good and His ultimate glory.

So, hello life! I am happy to see you again and to experience the joys that you bring.

Trophy Husband

So Joel doesn’t have a job right now and is in the middle of the whole job search thing, which is actually going really well. But in the meantime, he has some free time on his hands since he doesn’t have to report to anyone from 8 – 5.

Which means, he has made it his “job” to take care of me, the house, anything that needs doing right now. In the past two weeks, here is a short list of the things Joel has done for me:

• Cooked dinner and had it on the table every night that we are at home
• Done the laundry
• Cleaned out his clothes and reorganized his dresser
• Set up the internet
• Written around 20 thank you notes
• Returned all of our unnecessary gifts to their respective stores in Conyers, Athens and Atlanta
• Gone back and returned more of our unnecessary gifts
• Searched for the stores where some of our unnecessary gifts were purchased (not on our registry)
• Figured out how to connect my Mac to our TV
• Assembled an entertainment center (ok, I helped with that)
• Purchased a coffee table (as a surprise for me)
• Made the bed every morning
• Done the dishes
• Did I mention he cooks dinner every night?

In short, I have the best husband and best life in the world. I am seriously considering working out a deal with him where I can just be the breadwinner and we can live this way forever.

Also, to earn a little cash on the side, Joel is willing to offer his trophy husband, dinner-cooking services to others at an escalated cost a few days a week. Those interested (cough cough Whompsons!), please contact me to negotiate.