The Month of Love
by Shawn McEvoy Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church - a love marked by giving, not getting. - Ephesians 5:25, The Message For once in my marriage, I really did something right. My wife's name is Valerie - Val for short - so she's always held Valentine's Day in even higher esteem than most women. Not only that, but her birthday is March 15, so she's always believed (with a smile, of course) that February 14 through March 15 equals "The Month of Love" equals "it's all about her" for one-twelfth of the year. One year, I decided to agree. Each morning for 31 days when she woke up, there was a small hand-made red envelope (amazing what useful skills one can learn watching children's programming) stuck on some wall of our house. Written in sparkly marker (chicks dig the sparklies) on the outside of the envelope was one of her top character qualities. Inside the envelope was a Bible memory verse related to that quality. Embedded in the memory verse was a clue to where a small hidden gift could be found in or around our home. I just thought this could be a nice little way to tell her I love her. Boy was I short-sighted. I could have bought her the Taj Mahal and she wouldn't have appreciated it more, been more thoroughly impressed. "He went to Jared"? No way. He went to PBS and Hobby Lobby with a detour to Wal-Mart. But already Val is considering how to pass this story down to our grandchildren. She says I will never top myself. And she was saying these things before she even knew about the surprise at the end, where all the envelopes could be arranged so that the first letter of each character quality would spell out the grand prize: that she had her choice of a new wardrobe, upgraded wedding ring, or vacation, any of which would be shopped for together, 'cause she's big on that. Even so, she never took me up on the grand prize. I can't say I wasn't a little bit disappointed, but she was definitely exercising the wisdom of foresight. And anyway, to her, the biggest gift had already been received. Valerie thinks this took me ages to dream up and hours to prepare, but it took me about 10 minutes per day, plus a weekly trip to the store to stock up on a few minor gifts. But the outcome net me - if not crowns in Heaven - at least major returns in this life. Anytime a group of gals gathers together and asks each other, "What the best gift you've ever received?" that ends up being a fun day. Several times during the Month of Love itself I was told to take an evening to myself and go see a movie. And I learned something I thought I already knew - diamonds aren't a girl's best friend. Her husband is, if he even shows a rhinestone's-worth of interest in her. | 
_
10% Offer on gourmet sweets for New Year | Use WELCOME24
Posts
------------------------------------------
.jpg?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/quality,q_70/resize,m_mfit,w_350,h_350/format,webp)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment