On being thankful

It really is amazing how many times the apostle Paul reminds us to "be thankful" in his letters. It seems he knows that it is something that is important and valuable. Thankfulness combats so many things: jealousy, envy, discontent, depression, ungratefulness, selfishness..the list goes on.

Lately, I have been so thankful for my spouse. I have a few precious single girl friends who want to be married and when I see them in church on Sunday, faithfully worshiping with the church body and trusting Christ as their "husband", I am reminded that the Lord sweetly gave me a man to do life with. He entrusted me D.R. to care for and love. D.R. has been so kind and thankful for me lately and it has been a reminder that I need to do the same to him. He always thanks me for cooking him a meal and folding and putting away the clothes. Two things that he is thankful he does not have to do- nor does he enjoy doing. I enjoy doing them because I know they relieve him of these duties. And when I choose to do them with this in mind, I do them joyfully which is so much more fun than doing them out of necessity/obligation. My husband is a thoughtful person. He gets inside other's heads and finds out what's important to them. For example, our youth pastor Zach is a photographer and loves to take pictures (obviously) so D.R. brought a camera to youth group and took some pictures of him playing ultimate frisbee with the youth kids for him to have. Zach is usually never in the pictures we hang on the youth wall, because he's behind the camera.

Or when a family member's birthday is coming up, he is the first to remind me. (mainly because he sets a reminder on Google calendar a week in advance- genius!) He was the one to remind me that Buddy's birthday was at the end of September and he did the research for his birthday present. (a "all things on Baseball" book- one of Buddy's loves in life) I stink at gift giving. I admit it. I'm not good at it at all. Thank goodness for giftcards!

I love that my husband is others-focused. He is always looking for ways to give $ to organizations or friends who are in the mission field. We are a big supporter of Samaritan's Purse and every year around this time, we do Operation Christmas Child. It's become tradition to go to Walmart together and pick out age & gender- appropriate toys for a child. He always does a boy and I, a girl. It was D.R.'s idea to write our child a personal letter, telling them about us and our love for Jesus Christ (and we always include a picture of us so they can know who we are) It's been a neat way to serve together around the holiday season.

Changing gears.... I have struggled in the past to appreciate who my husband is. For a long while, I have battled with comparing our marriage to others; comparing my husband with other husbands. I wasn't being thankful for the great qualities D.R. has. I'm learning to be a "student" of my husband- trying to recognize his strengths and be his cheerleader and recognizing his weaknesses and not putting him down for them. I'm trying to notice what stresses him out and take those things off his hands. I'm learning that guys need to hear "I love you" and "you look hot, honey" just as much as girls do. In fact, I feel like a man's confidence is more fragile than ours sometimes. I'm reminded to touch him more- to make him feel I desire him and value him physically. He's loving me a lot better than he did at the beginning of our marriage. I hope he can say the same for me.

I can truly say: Thank you God for allowing me a wife. Thank for you giving D.R. to me as my spouse. Thank you that I can go through life's joys and sorrows with a believing man leading me. Thank you for my husband's strengths. Thank you that he is mine.