Marriage Challenge - #6

Make him a priority. Ask him what his favorite dinner, dessert and drink are. Be sure to serve him all three one night this week. Bonus: cook his favorite dishes all week long!

When I read the challenge this summer I thought "no problem". We were sitting in that hotel room and I had just made a menu for our first month in our new home. Jon and I had sat on the bed and put everything we could think of that we were craving and missing while we were eating out every meal. This included full meals every night and desserts on Sabbaths.

By the time we got into our new home we were so ready to eat a home cooked meal that I think we were almost willing to eat anything. But since I'd had the time to prepare a menu with grocery lists and recipes it was easy to execute. I realized how easy it would make my life if I just continued this.

I've been able to cook at home most evenings now instead of eating out. If we do eat out it's because we want to and not because there isn't anything in the house.

But what I realized today when I pulled this challenge up was that it wasn't just about meals.

I read a poster when I was a pre-teen that has stayed with me ever since. It says -

"Love is what's best for the other person."

I've tried very hard to treat my husband and my marriage by this.

Jon's family was here part of this last week and this weekend. On Sunday morning Jon, his dad and his brother went mountain bike riding. Now I knew that they would be gone longer than the time they'd said. Dominic had his Little Lamb class at 3pm and Jon has always gone with him. It's during Caitlin's nap time and I've used this as my non-children time. I didn't want Jon to go on the bike ride. He had been gone on a business trip and I felt like we hadn't spent any time together and I was missing him. I also didn't want to miss my non-child time if I had to be the one to take Dominic to his meeting. 

I was being supremely selfish. Jon needed that time with his dad and brother and it was only a small amount of time in the whole grand scheme of things. But that didn't stop me from pouting in my mind. And since I've been living with my dear husband for over 14 years I'm sure he knew I was in a foul mood.

While he was gone I began to feel very guilty. It didn't stop me from feeling selfish, but it certainly convicted me that I had not been loving my husband and making him a priority. He needed this time with his family and needed the exercise as well since he hadn't been able to ride his bike while on the business trip. I knew that I should offer to go to Dominic's meeting with him if they happened to return before 3pm. My husband is an amazing man and they were back by 2:30pm. Since we live about 5 minutes from the church this was plenty of time for him to change and go to Dominic's meeting. I told Jon that I would take Dominic. 

But I was still grouchy and selfish about it. 

The meeting was loud and cold (for some reason the heat was never turned on and some of the class was outside in the cold and wet). I had a headache and was miserable. I became a martyr and kept telling myself "I sure hope he appreciates this."

But I was doing it for all of the wrong reasons. My priority should have been Jon and not my selfish heart. Just because I eventually did the right thing didn't make it right unless I did it in love.

So this week I will work even more on changing my heart to show my husband my love and to make him a priority in my life. He's the best husband a girl could ask for and I need to show him how I feel.