True Love and Commitment in Marriage

Elisabeth asleep with her hands in my sleeves

Elisabeth asleep with her hands in my sleeves. The picture is a little blurry because it was dark in the room.

I am sure some of you may have missed my posts over the weekend. I decided that if I was going to write about love, marriage, and commitment that I needed to be living it. So this weekend I went ahead and put my writing aside to enjoy my family.

Yes, I could have blogged from my phone. But which is better being in karate class with my family or sitting on the sidelines typing a blog post with my thumbs?

I could have stayed in the car while my family went into the store to buy art supplies, but then I would have missed the chance to offer hospitality to friends we saw in the store.

Saturday night I could have blogged but then I would not have been playing my ukulele while my husband played his viola. And then there was the chess game we played together.

Sunday afternoon, I chose to not worry about writing. Instead, I enjoyed watching our children play with their friends after church. We hadn’t seen our friends in a long while and it was a blessing that they visited us.

We had a Bible Study at our church Sunday night. After we got our children to bed, I chose to sleep instead of write. A well rested mother makes for a much happier family.

This morning I read a book to my 3 youngest children while their siblings were working with some animals on a neighbor’s ranch.

This afternoon I agreed to let my son have a pet rooster. I originally planned to let him start with chickens and eventually have a rooster. However my mothering heart realized he was on a humanitarian mission to rescue a rooster that was destined to possibly be someone’s next meal. A pet rooster might be good for him.

I rocked my baby to sleep for a nap. I do not rock her to sleep at night but for a nap, I do. She is growing up so quickly and I know it won’t be long when she won’t let me rock her anymore. So I rock her with her hands stuck up my sleeves. I haven’t fully figured out why she likes to stick her hands up my sleeves when she is tired but she does. I guess she finds comfort that way.

My husband came home and I listened to how his day went before he left with our son to pick up the rooster. They came back with not only the rooster but a hen as well. I guess they didn’t want the rooster to be lonely all by itself.

And while my husband was gone with our son, he told me I should get this blog post written. So I started this post. I also answered what felt like a million questions.

I then rocked the baby to sleep for the second time. Who was so rudely awakened by a brother coming in asking more questions at the top of his voice.

I can’t stop life from happening around me. Sometimes I have to put what I want aside for my family. I can’t be angry with my children for wanting my attention when I would rather write. My husband needs my attention too. Life cannot be only about me and what I want. I need to also keep in mind others and what they want.

This past weekend I chose to live out building commitment instead of just writing about it. That is what this world needs after all, someone to stand up and set an example of what a committed marriage and family should look like.

Have you ever had to give up something you really wanted in order to show commitment to your family? Please share with me in the comments.

Right now our children are in bed and my husband is washing dishes so I can come in here and finish this post. That is what true love looks like. Doing what we wouldn’t want to do otherwise for the good of the one we love.

This is Day 18 of 31 Days Building Commitment. Tomorrow we will continue the series where we left off Friday with finding commitment after divorce.

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Babysitting Chickens and Potty Training…Oh, my!

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My 14 year old son volunteered to babysit some baby chickens. I agreed to let him. So far they are still alive and still in their box.

I was imagining a whole bunch of baby chicks the first morning after we got them. It’s been good though.

I want to give a little mid month progress report.

So far I have kept up with the dishes. Right now as I type this post all but maybe 2 cups are washed in the kitchen. It’s been a lot of hard work but we’re keeping it up.

This makes my second blog for this week so I’m still going strong on posting twice a week.

I have actually got a devotional book started in my mind. I realize that’s not quite writing one devotional a week but the brainstorming and planning can be some of the hardest work.

To make up for not writing a devotional a week, I have been writing my son letters to greet him each morning as he arises early to work on his lessons. I am usually up but this gives him a chance to read cursive writing and I like to throw in some devotional type thoughts for him to think about as he begins the day.

I am thinking about writing letters to my other children as well but I need to get my sleep schedule back on track so I can have more time to write more letters. I’m thinking there might be a book idea in this somewhere.

Elijah is still potty training. The other day at karate class he fought with me over actually going in the toilet. He was still dry but in his refusal to go he peed all over my gi pants.

Something about having a two year old wet you while standing right next to the toilet is pretty discouraging although I managed to get him aimed in the right direction and cheer for his getting some in the potty.

I praised him for staying dry and he said, “Mommy, yours wet!”

Yep.

Today made up for it though. He dirtied himself this morning but this afternoon he went in the potty and stayed dry.

He got two stickers. One to proudly wear on his hand and another to put on a chart I made for him out of notebook paper. He has 3 stickers on his chart and he stayed dry all the way through bedtime.

I have not been doing too well at keeping up with going to bed early but I’ll keep trying.

In fact I’m having trouble getting my eyes to stay focused on this blog post. I really need sleep!

How have you been doing on your goals? Do you have friends that help keep you accountable?

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