Fully awake

This is none of your business but you can read it anyway :)...

I like Tuesdays, but then I’m strange, I like most days. But I like Tuesdays because Melanie doesn’t go in to work till 10ish. And on Tuesdays I will sleep a little later - till say 6:30 or so. This morning as I lay there I watched my wife sleep.

Twenty six years we’ve slept together: Odds are our marriage is over half over. In this bed: we’ve laughed together (not enough, could it ever be enough?), we’ve cried together, we’ve shared our deepest secrets, we’ve struggled with the hurts of others and the decisions of life, we’ve confessed faults and admitted when our feelings were hurt, a few times we’ve fallen asleep not too happy with each other (that has never been pleasant), we’ve prayed together, we’ve dreamed together, we’ve talked for hours on end...and my life is better.

God has been good to me, better than I deserve, and I suspect she’s the main reason why, He knows it’s not me. I have had a margin of success in my profession, have two sons who love the Lord, have never fallen so hard and far that my face has ended up on a post office wall or been fired from a job and I have joy. She doesn’t like or want the spotlight (I may even be in trouble for writing this :)). She works quietly on people. Most today don’t value that, but I believe she has more deeply influenced, in her graceful way, more people than I have. I think mostly, she’s put up with me, been patient with me, loved me in spite of my forgetfulness.

Thank you dear Father for this woman, she is my source of strength on earth, she is my helpmeet, and more often than I’d admit I’ve taken her for granted. I’ve not let her know how much I depend on and need her.

I got more than I bargained for, I out-kicked my coverage, married up, you fill in your favorite phrase there.

I think I know when I knew I wanted to marry her, I mean for real. My uncle Dan was speaking in a retreat at the old Primm lake-house down in Roanoke, Alabama. I already had my eye on her, in fact had pretty much from the second time I saw her. But he said: “You are not ready to marry until you can look a girl in the eye and say I want to spend the rest of my life with you us helping each other go to heaven.” And I knew, she was (and is) the one who could do that.

This morning I woke up and watched her sleep, she is more beautiful today than the first time I woke up and watched her sleep over twenty-six years ago. Our time is half up on this earth, could be much more than half up, I hope she knows how much I love her.

Thank you for Tuesdays. May I be fully awake to the graces You have put in my life...starting with her.

*Guys, love the wife of your youth...the dividends never stop paying. Stay in there, don’t quit, you’ll regret it if you do, and you’ll rejoice if you don’t. Remember your “golden” band and your golden “bond”.