Married Life

OK, this is Dan’s blog, so some of you may have had a heart attack just now when you read the title. Rest assured that Dan isn’t writing on married life. My name is Chris, I’m an aquaintance of Dan’s, and several weeks ago now he invited me to guest post on his blog. It’s only tonight that I’ve found the time to write that post… but I guess that’s part of the story.

Several times over the seven-and-counting years of our marriage, people have asked how the marriage is going, what we’re learning. And as I think over it, I can point to one huge thing that marriage (and to an even greater extend, having children) has taught me is this: I am selfish. Now, I’m not one of these six-nights-a-week-are-mine-and-leave-me-alone-woman selfish types, but I can’t begin to count the number of times that I’ve had to squelch that inner voice that is asking “why the heck are you doing this right now? wouldn’t you rather be spending your time doing _____?” And often the answer is that yeah, for me, I would like to be doing something else. But what I’ve come to observe and learn is that my time is much better invested in my wife and daughter than it is in me.

This brings us to today. It’s Friday, a normal workday for me would have me at my place of employment from 7 AM to around 3 PM. But about 8 my wife called and said she was sick, throwing up, and could I come home and watch the kiddo? (The kiddo is Laura, our 16-month-old.) So I left work and headed home. It wasn’t exactly how I wanted to burn a day of vacation, but it needed done. It ended up being a pretty decent day, though. I got to spend the day with Laura. We went to the mall to finish Christmas shopping. Becky got a bunch of sleep. Tonight she went to sleep early, which is allowing me the time to finally guest post.

So tonight it hits me: this is what married life is all about. OK, so we don’t want every day to be like today, but a day like today provides opportunities to serve, to love, to grow. God uses it to make me more like Jesus. And that’s what it’s all about.

– Chris
House of Cakeboy

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Posted December 16th, 2005 in main. Tagged: , .

4 comments:

  1. House of Cakeboy » Blog Archive » guest blogging:

    [...] Truly devoted readers of mine will check out my guest post on Finally Getting Somewhere 2.0. Thanks to Dan for the opportunity to share! [...]

    December 16th, 2005 at 11:55 pm
  2. jules:

    Welcome… way to make the singles feel singler (more single?…. kidding kidding! Man, what’s with everyone thinking that I’m still all strung-up and bitter…

    Seriously though, I really enjoyed your post ‘provides a oportunitis to serve, to love, to grow..’ sounds applicable to everyone I’d say.

    December 17th, 2005 at 12:18 am
  3. shan:

    Hello Chris,

    Hmm. That was an interesting posting Chris. Thank you for the honest perspective.

    You are right, I had a slight MI when I read the post title. :)

    Here I was thinking. “Oh my goodness, now Dax is an expert on marriage!?” (Not that he is not capable of giving a perspective of “Married Life”… but… there’s a slight disavantage when you are not married…yet).

    And yes, it reminded me of this again: “God uses it to make me more like Jesus. And that’s what it’s all about.”

    This is not only for marriage relationships for all other relationships are also a slight reflection of how our relationship is with our Savior…

    shan

    December 17th, 2005 at 2:24 am
  4. Roger:

    Great job, Chris.

    My wife and I have found that we are both selfish, too. Not vs each other, but the thought of having a child confirms our selfish natures; neither one of us wants to give up the freedom it would take in order to have a child. That’s only one of my many reasons I don’t want children. I’m glad she’s got at least one good one, too.

    Now I need to go back and add a link to my site from my guestblog…

    December 17th, 2005 at 9:55 pm

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