"Time Out!"

Okay, Okay… How many of you read yesterday’s post and began reminiscing about some of those special times when you first met your spouse?  Memories do have an important place in people’s lives, and while it can be detrimental to live in the past, remembrances of enjoyable times can help one to make good adjustments in their present life.

Yesterday I was busily cleaning out our second bedroom in anticipation of our youngest son’s visit from Oklahoma.  The room had kinda turned into the place where I stuck all the stuff I that didn’t know what to do with.  (I think every home has a place like that!)  We haven’t seen Jeremy for two years and I wanted the place to look nice for him.  So, I had set my mind to complete the task before the end of the day.  After a couple of hours I was pretty tired and hot, but I pushed myself to complete the job.

On one of the final trips up the stairs to a storage area off our bedroom loft, I came across a large picture album.  Figuring that it was a good excuse to catch my breath, I sat on a box and began to leaf through its pages.  The book was put together by one of our kids many years ago, but had no name on it in order to identify its creator.  As I flipped over a page, I paused at a picture that I had taken of my wife and Jeremy when he was about two years old.  He was simply adorable as he was napping quietly in her arms with his bright red hair and blushed cheeks.  My eyes traveled slowly up the picture until I locked my gaze on my wife’s face.  At that moment it was as if my breath was taken away from me.  I stared into her eyes and unexpectantly exclaimed “God, she’s beautiful!”  Then the tears filled my eyes and I began to weep.

You have to understand, I have always thought that my wife was the most beautiful woman in the world.  When the two of us entered a room I knew that all eyes were immediately drawn to her.  I can remember the time when my wife and I had accompanied our former Pastors to a conference about twelve years ago.  On the second day there, we had lunch together and Jerry handed me my ministry licensing papers, just before we left to rest before the evening session.  Once in our room, my wife laid down and I sat on a couch near the window to review the paperwork.  As I read the form I was overwhelmed with joy thinking that life couldn’t get much better, for here I was, first of all, alone with my wonderful lovely wife and secondly that I finally received my “official” Pastoring papers!

My wife has been my best friend, lover, confidant, greatest supporter and encourager since we met as juniors in high school, over 42 years ago.  Now that we have been dealing with her medical needs, I have taken on the role of her 24 hour caregiver.  In that position I had begun to drift from some of those feelings that came strikingly back to me as I viewed the picture in that photo album.  At that moment I vowed to never allow that to happen again, and I immediately went downstairs to hug and reaffirm my love to her.

That’s the power that a look into the past can have to help one make an adjustment in their current life.  Are there areas of your life that you need to readjust or reaffirm?  Is there any level of recommitment that you need to make to your spouse?  Are you still living the dreams and hopes that the two of you once planned?  If not, there might be a need for a “time out,” where the two of you stop and plan a time to go out and have some fun, reminisce the past and recapture the love that brought you together in the first place… and while your at it, take the time to read Proverbs 31 to each other.  The prophet King Lemuel was a very wise man!  Stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What (good things) am I expecting today?”