Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Man I Choose to Love

My love for my husband has grown and evolved over time. It looks nothing like the chrysalis of early years from which it broke free, much like the beginnings of a butterfly. He has changed and so have I. Luckily we have matured and come to accept our own shortcomings and, as a result, the shortcomings of each other. Do we still at times disagree and perhaps drive each other crazy on occasion? Absolutely! We haven't reached personal perfection and won't on this side of Heaven. What I want to write about is my love for my husband.

First of all, I choose to love my husband as he is. Having said that, he makes that choice easy and I thank God that he loves me back. Let me tell you why, for the most part, he is easy to love. He is very thoughtful of those whose life circumstances are less fortunate than his have been. For example, one of his former dental assistants, a lovely Christian woman his same age, has had to endure some horrific experiences: paralysis from the waist down from an automobile accident, the loss of her oldest child at age twenty-seven from a dialysis procedure done improperly, and the unexpected death of her sister just three weeks after she came to live with this sister following the auto accident. There is much more I could add, but one gets the picture of misfortune that I am trying to describe without adding anything to this list. My wonderful husband decided to buy this lady a motorized wheelchair for which her medical insurance would not pay. Having this motorized wheelchair allows her to more easily get to church, to shop at stores located close to the care facility where she lives and any number of other things. Mike also travels to the San Pedro area where she lives every two to three months to take her and her friend to dinner. Happily, I get to tag along and share in the blessing.

Mike is very good to call people to check on their needs, and he is thoughtful about volunteering his time and energy to ways he can help them. Of course, our daughters are the first recipients of this generous giving of himself. Unlike many other men, Mike will gladly babysit his grandchildren even if I am not there to help. Diaper changing is no problem, and turning upside down in a flight simulator that leaves him sick at the end is okay to make a grandson happy. He will clean windows without anyone saying a word. In fact, in our thirty-six years of marriage, I could count on one hand the number of windows I have cleaned. He also throws in laundry if I'm not there to do it. There is only one area at which he balks and that is cooking. Since cooking is not my strong suit, I have often wondered how our daughters became such great cooks.

There is so much more that I could say, but I will stop at the spiritual. I have watched him mature as a Christian into the leader of our family that God intended for him to be. We rarely miss church and there is always a good reason when we do, such as being out of town. He participates in the usher ministry, attends Men's Bible study, and facilitates a small group held at our home. He encourages me in my walk and actually asks my opinion on some Bible questions that he has answered for his Men's Bible study. His answers are mostly very excellent and well reasoned from my humble perspective. I think he just likes to stroke my ego by asking for input. God has blessed me profusely and I am grateful for the man he chose for me to love.