Okay, okay, I know it’s been forever. Camouflage man and I have been so extremely busy lately. When I look back at our busy times, I never know what we were so busy doing, but I KNOW we were busy! Running errands, keeping up with friends, work, church, visiting family, work, missing church, work, laundry, oh yes and sleep, it seems like a never-ending cycle sometimes. All the craziness of our schedules got me thinking .. which Camouflage man has realized is rarely a good thing for him and usually involves A) nagging B) honey-do items or C) complete mental and emotional breakdown of his beloved also known as “Code Red” as he has so sweetly coined it.
So, a few weeks ago, I felt a “Code Red” evolving. I have made it a goal to try and handle these better, as in the past, they have involved fetal positions on the floor in a puddle of tears. (Did I just admit that?) Yes, I will admit it, I’m a woman and I’m emotional! However, this time in a effort to handle myself with a little more grace, I headed to Mardel’s to find some sort of self-help book. I was combing the aisles for titles like, “How to deal with your emotions,” “How not to become a psychotic wife,” or maybe even “Hi, my name is Breanne, and I am an emotional wreck.” (It was a downpoint alright, I’m not proud of it!) Shocking as it may be, I never quite found one, but I did run across one called, “Songs in the Key of Solomon: In the Word and In the Mood,” a couples devotional.
Now, ladies I know what you’re thinking. We’ve all been there. We encouragingly suggest to our husbands that maybe we should do a couples devotional; however, what usually happens is the wife tries repeatedly to carve out time for the devotional and ends up nagging at the husband to do it all the while reminding him that the Bible says HE’S supposed to be the spiritual leader of the house! No matter how the story plays out the result is more often that not the convenient “loss” of the book.
This book, though, caught my attention. I mean come on the title is “In the Word and In the MOOD.” Surely, Camouflage Man could find an “interest” in it .. 😉
We often become so obsessed with our own to-do lists, that we forget what we are on this earth for and sadly, we forget that one the most important roles we serve is as a “wife.” We may not be called to be the “spiritual leaders,” but ladies, if men could survive this life without us, God wouldn’t have created Eve. (even if she did screw up, eat the apple, and cause us to bear the pains of child labor .. gee thanks, Eve) Seriously though, as wives we are called to be a helper for our husbands. For me, it often means I’m the encourager, the cheerleader, the supporter, so with this in mind, I snatched the book and rushed home to “encourage” my husband to embark on this spiritual journey with me.
Now, as much grief as I like to give Camouflage man, I have to admit that he has a hunger to be an amazing spiritual leader. He may not embody all those characteristics now, but he has a want and a desire. So, I wasn’t too surprised when he agreed. (again .. I think the title helped a bit)
So, here we are a few weeks in. We vowed from the beginning NOT to make this a routine thing like some people would. We don’t want it to be routine, something we have to do. We want it to be spontaneous and only open it up when we WANT to learn more. Here are some things we have learned so far:
1) Your marriage is like a love song. You’re either screaming the lyrics of “I can’t get no satisfaction,” or you’re dancing around the living room to Louis Armstrong’s “What a wonderful world.” The secret to a great marriage is to figure out how you keep the great love songs playing and the “Mission Impossible” soundtrack from creeping in. It’s hard to hear the music sometimes when so many other “notes” are drowning out our love song, but we have to make sure to tune out the bad notes and keep the good ones in tune! (like my cliches?)
2) All marriages seek to get back to their “Eden.” When you boil it down, in the beginning there was God, a man, a woman and nakedness, and everything was good. But like I said earlier, Eve screwed that up, so now we need to try to get back to our own Eden. Aka. Our Nakedness. (Draw your own conclusions .. .)
I think I’ll stop there. All joking aside though, it’s hard for everyone, me especially, to make sure I am carving out time for my husband. In all the busy-ness of life, we have to remember what’s most important. I encourage you to carve out some time this week to do a “sound check” on your relationship. If the music isn’t playing .. go find your “Eden.” Hehe
It’s a Walderful Life,
J&B
P.S. If you would like to go through the devotional with us, you can find the book at your local Mardel’s store, or click THIS LINK to order it on Amazon!
It's A Walderful Life 