Marriage: Handle With CareSample

My husband, Randy, and my father-in-law were outside, jacking up the shipping container holding our possessions, when I heard the crash.

I stood in the closet, knowing I would soon learn if my husband or father-in-law had been under the container when its weight obliterated the cinder blocks beneath it.

After five minutes, when no one came rushing in, I went outside and saw the heavier end of the shipping container had dropped five feet. 

I gave Randy a once-over to make sure all his dusty extremities were intact, and then it hit me: my beautiful mirrors and paintings, which I had accumulated over the last six years, were in that shipping container. 

And it had dropped five feet.

“I’m done,” I murmured to no one, stalking back inside. “I’m just done.”

Searching for some privacy to nurse our newborn, I went upstairs, and my toddler followed. I feared she would start fussing once she saw her toys were packed, but I was just too tired to care. 

But she didn’t say anything. She didn’t even frown.

Instead, she picked up a wilted balloon from our nephew’s birthday party. She found a party hat that had lost its staple. She donned the hat and picked up the balloon and carried it around like a trophy. 

Tears filled my eyes.

My toddler, whose age alone warranted tantrums my age did not, wasn’t upset about the fact that all her worldly possessions were packed away. 

Faith alone wasn’t the only way I needed to be more like my child; I also needed her flexibility.

Randy had been working around the clock to get our family prepared for our move to Wisconsin—even saying I would only have to hop in the van when it was time to leave. And here I begrudged him because one of his projects hadn’t gone according to plan.

Had he ever begrudged me?

Never. He’d only offered me never-ending support. So I would handle our marriage with the same care I’d given those “priceless” pieces of clearance art.

Conversation Starter: Talk about a time in your marriage when you had to extend grace to your spouse the way grace had been extended to you. What did you learn from that experience?

Getting Started: Make a list of the ways your spouse has extended grace to you. Make a list of the ways you can extend grace to him/her.