Equip Yourself

It’s natural to love on your kids, right? You willingly tend to their needs expecting nothing in return. You understand what each cry means, you serve them countless meals, you teach them over and over again, you tell yet another story, you tuck them in each night, you selflessly teach and pour into them forever, and you do this because that’s just what a mama does. Of course there are those moody or whiny days, two year old meltdowns, or teenage mood swings and everything in between. And in those days, or seasons for that matter, you have to try harder to compose yourself, say some extra prayers for patience or taming of your tongue, but for the most part, you naturally love on your tribe and will sacrifice a whole lot for them.

Now when it comes to loving on your husband, does it come that naturally for you? I’d assume most would say no. He can respond back, he can push your buttons, leave his towel on the bathroom floor AGAIN, disappoint you, not meet a heart need of yours (that seems so simple to you) that you’ve told him a thousand times, he can sit down next to you with his phone in his hand rather than talk to you face to face like you’ve told him you crave, and so on and so on and so on. Ladies, I know it can be super deep and complex and so many things that make it hard to respond in love to your man, but what if you just made a change in the way you respond to his actions, or lack there of? Could you do a little equipping for yourself in how you respond to your husband for the sake of your marriage?

I relate it to kids because they can wrong us, disappoint us, frustrate us, and we still quickly and easily forgive them, give them grace and respond in love, yet with our husband it’s hard and might take us equipping ourself and our mindset. I know it’s not always easy and there may be deep hurt and pain and things that need to be discussed and worked through, but what if you focused on YOU and your composure, your reaction, your response to him? Do you need to show grace and check yourself and your expectations of him? Would it affect the temperature, direction and tone of your night? I am not saying you need to put up with things that hurt your feelings and not talk about it, but what I’m saying is maybe that’s a starting point to get out of the ‘funk’ you might be in. I know I needed to check myself when we were in a ‘funk’ last time and the more I did not respond nicely, or in love, the deeper into the hole we went. It took one of us to start responding with love and grace to start to chip away at the wall that was quickly growing. I know it doesn’t fix everything or resolve it all, but I’m a doer and would rather do something rather than nothing. Maybe you need a boost to get out of a funk you might be in too, so there you go, that’s my thought for today.

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