Tag Archives: relationships

community, family, humor, miscellany

I Don’t Think We Know Each Other That Well…

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How well do you have to know someone to ask them to help you move?  I mean, do you really want some casual acquaintance carrying your underwear drawer or helping you sort through your comic book collection?

At what point is it appropriate to ask someone when they plan on having kids?  This is a question that my wife and I are asked often.  I usually respond by asking the inquirer when they are planning on having kids.  If they have the Duggar-syndrome, I ask them when they are going to stop having kids or just inform them that they have enough children for the both of us.

Social conventions are just weird.  For example, when you randomly talk to someone that you’ve never met before (maybe at a restaurant or in an elevator) and you say, “How’s it going?”  What do you do when they start unloading all of their baggage?  It seems appropriate to be kind and gracious but it’s still awkward.

My only solution is to find people that you can really get to know well.  Share your life with those people.  Then it won’t feel awkward when they ask you to help them move, share their problems with you, or question you about your reproductive plans!

books, christian life, gospel, relationships

Crucifying My Wife

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It is disconcerting to be vulnerable on the “interweb.”  I am about to share my marital woes with millions of my closest friends.  Here goes anyway…

I’ve been thinking a lot about idolatry and my own life.  I have a lot of idols (e.g., sports, dreams, job, popularity, friends, etc.).  The most dangerous idol I have recently discovered is the one God has called me to love more than myself — my wife.

In my haste to love and adore my wife (which I most certainly do), I have put a lot of expectations on her.  I noticed recently that I started to get very terse with my wife when she let me down in even the smallest ways.  Their are a myriad of reasons why this is the wrong way to act (e.g., she is the most talented and loving person I know, I act like a jerk way more than she does, she demonstrates sacrifice toward me every day, etc.).

Here is one way that Donald Miller explained it recently:

I realized that for years I’d thought of love as something that would complete me, make all my troubles go away.  I worshiped at the alter of romantic completion.  And it had cost me, plenty of times.  And it had cost most of the girls I’d dated, too, because I wanted them to be something they couldn’t be.  it’s too much pressure to put on a person.

That is so true.  Only God can handle the “pressure” of demonstrating perfect love.  The application of this sentiment is what hit me the hardest.  Here is how Miller finished his thought:

I think that’s why so many couples fight, because they want their partners to validate them and affirm them, and if they don’t get that, they feel as though they’re going to die.  And so they lash out.  But it’s a terrible thing to wake up and realize the person you just finished crucifying didn’t turn out to be Jesus.

Ouch.