Move Closer

A few years ago, I asked Bradley to help me with a major diaper blowout. He was eager and willing to help, but I quickly became irritated because he wasn’t actually helpful. I had to give him step-by-step instructions on how to put a diaper underneath the baby and use extra wipes to clean up the mess. It didn’t matter that this was our sixth baby and he’s changed hundreds of diapers over the past twelve years.

Well, a few days later, he asked me to get a nail gun and hot galvanized nails for our fence repair project. It took me two trips to Home Depot and Harbor Freight, multiple salespeople to ensure the proper materials, and a silly question to the rental department because of course nail guns use an air compressor. Not a battery pack.

We make a good team. Not because we’re both good at the same things, but because we’re good at different things.

When I look at my husband through this lens—God wired him differently from me—I’m free from comparison, frustration, judgment, and condescension. I’m free to be the master of diapers, groceries, managing our home, remembering people’s names, finding misplaced objects, and keeping up with details. I’m free to let him be a master in other ways. Instead of allowing our differences to drive a wedge between us, I can delight in the ways our differences actually knit us together.

You and your husband may have different areas of expertise than we do, but the application is the same. Acknowledge your distinct differences. Celebrate them. Live in humility with one another. Confess, repent and forgive when your pride rears its head.

Then stand back and rejoice in what God accomplished through you as you moved closer to work together side by side in unity, submission, respect, and love.

Through laughter, sweat, sawdust, and keeping your neighbors up with the plunking of a nail gun, you just might build a fence together.

This is Day 7 of a series: A Diligent Wife

Photo by Melissa Mullin on Unsplash