Standing at a home décor store entrance, Chuck and his buddy stood very still. They felt very out of place. Approached by a sales clerk, she politely asked if she could assist them. Chuck replied, “I need a vase for my wife.” She smiled and told them to follow her. Jason leaned over to Chuck and said, “You don’t say vase in a place like this; you say (va-wse).”
Pa and Grammy were visiting for the weekend. Loading up and heading to church, Eva noticed Pa open the car door for Grammy and asked him why he was doing that. Pa explained that it was good manners for a Prince to open the car door for his Princess. Eva thought for a moment and then piped up, “Mommy. Why doesn’t daddy open the door for you?”
Controlling my laughter, I explained that he does, but it is often missed when we try to put both girls in the vehicle. I reminded her of each time it rains and how he goes and gets the truck for us and pulls it up to the door, never looking for an umbrella for himself, just trying to help us all get in the car as quickly as possible.
I thought about all the doors he opened for me that I often miss. Without a word, he will be in the kitchen preparing snacks, washing sippy cups, and finishing half-made lunches. I hear him washing the girl’s hair and changing their night clothes while I finish the evening pick-ups. I see him up late at night to complete projects the day couldn’t handle or leave work early so he doesn’t miss a single sports game- opening doors that make life easier for me.
Abraham and Mary Lincoln dated and broke up. After miserable months apart, friends plotted to bring them back together. Finally, they married, but their shared love of poetry and politics was not enough to bring harmony to the marriage. Both struggled with bouts of depression and seemed to avoid intimate and potentially restorative conversation. Historians record that Mary would throw things in fits of anger, and Abe would withdraw from the fray, unwilling to engage.
Abraham Lincoln was one of our greatest Presidents. Just think if he had put into practice the principles he executed running America in his home. He and his wife would have enjoyed marital unity and peace like no other.
“No marriage is free of differences or difficulties. The devil wants to exaggerate your mate’s failures and inadequacies, sow suspicion and jealousy, indulge your self-pity, insist that you deserve something better, and hold out the hollow promise that things would be better with someone else. But God can change hearts and remove all hardness if we allow him” – L.C.
The other day we were heading somewhere, and when I came out of the house, Eva was already in the vehicle, and Chuck was buckling in Charlotte. I noticed my car door was open, even though he was nowhere near it. I smiled to myself, knowing what he was doing. I saw in a fleeting moment of seatbelts, diaper bags, and noises -ties that bind.
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