Snow, Hearts, Love, and other ramblings

Since most of us have been snowed in this past week but

especially today as another 10 blowing inches of snow is

adding to the already 20+ inches covering our lives, I'm

following Little Sister Kim's suggestion and posting on our

blog that has been ignored for way too long.

Proverbs 17:32

A merry heart doeth good like a 'medicine' but a broken

spirit dried the bones.

As we continue working our way through "The Excellent Wife" book, which I for one have struggled with, I've been thinking about the statement that Shelia made last fall - that this book is essential to every women married or not. I didn't really fully embrace that sediment then but suddenly over the snowed-in weekend, I got IT! We really need to live our lives each day as if GOD was our husband. Honoring, submitting, and obeying. And for those of us with husbands, that is what an 'excellent' wife will do.

I know that these ideas will make a lot of us bristle and I for one have not practiced those 3 rules all that often in my 27 years of union with Mike. Our generation bought into women's liberation and have passed much of that on to our daughters. In the work world, I agree absolutely - same work/same pay/benefits/promotions, etc. But in my marriage, I have too often been the decision maker, a role I would have preferred not to have felt I had to fill. Maybe I could have had more patience????? and he then may have made the decision???? Can't know unless I make the effort as the 'excellent wife' author suggest. And even then I must accept whatever that decision may be. Challenging, challenging, challenging......but I am ready and willing to practice the steps to become a loving, respectful, honoring, obeying, excellent wife. (but I must confess that even as I type these words, the 'obeying' in theory gives me the most prickly prick of discomfort. Meaning, that I need to accept and not grumble under my breath or to any other's ears. Challenging, challenging, challenging!)

Hey, I'm laying it all out here - I love my Mike, dearly, but I have done many, many things that takes me right out of that category - excellent wife- especially complaining about him to other people. And right about now, that is very embarrassing....

Through trial(s) and error(s), my marriage has grown, wilted, bloomed, wilted, and grown once again. I realize that it will only continue to grow if we both tend the garden of our hearts/lives with loving attention and nourishment. I can't wait for the other gardener to do all the work first; I need to tend his garden with love, honor, commitment, and respect. Then the roots of love, honor, commitment, and respect will be secured within the depths our marriage and not only will we be honoring each other but more importantly we will be honoring GOD through our love of one another.

Question - what if there was a female liberation movement in the animal kingdom? What kind of havoc would that cause? Any thoughts?

Finally, let us remember to keep our hearts merry, Sisters, for the LOVE of our Heavenly FATHER is always surrounding and supporting us 24/7! Something that would be very challenging for even the most exemplary husband to do ;-)!!