Loving the Differences!

My husband and I have been together for 12 years. I know the man pretty well by now. We actually tend to be very similar in a lot of ways. We're both strong-willed, stubborn  outgoing, extroverts. We do however, have one great difference. He is impulsive and spontaneous, and I'm anything but. I like to step back and way to pros and cons and make a logical decision  He will throw all caution to the wind and just go in a heartbeat. This is one of the things that attracted me to him in the first place, and ironically enough the thing that can drive me the most crazy! At the end of the day, however, I am very thankful for it. We tend to balance each other out well. He pushes me to be more adventurous and I help reign him back in.

Until this weekend, I really hadn't thought of the spiritual applications of this fundamental difference. Saturday we were stopped at a stop light next to a man on a moped. The light turned green and his moped decided it wasn't going to go. We watched him push it to the side of the road to get out of the way. I thought, "Well that stinks." My husband on the other hand went through the light and turned around. The guy had made it to the gas station across the street, and as we pulled in my husband heard me say, "What are you doing?" knowing full well the answer. Next I foolishly proceeded to tell him how strongly I felt about a random stranger getting in the car with our children. Turns out the man just need more gas and being at the gas station, he didn't need any help. We went about our day.

Sunday morning we were loading up in the car for church (which is an experience in and of itself) and my husband and our neighbor started some small talk about the nice weather or something. Our neighbor mentioned how he had spent some time outside the day before and how his time in nature was "Just like church". I didn't think anything of it until my husband told me he was going to go over and invite him to church with us later that night. Once a year our church hosts Dan the Animal Man to come and do a presentation. He owns a "creature center" and uses it as a ministry touring with his exotic animals and explaining creation and salvation through science and animals. (**Side note: Dan the Animal Man is awesome! We saw him last year and bought his DVD. It's a little over our kids heads because there's a lot of talking, but I'm so glad we have this resource in our home. Especially if our kids end up in the public school system listening to teachers teach evolution as truth. Here's a link to where you can learn more because I like him so much: http://www.dantheanimalman.net/Churches.html **) Anyway, my husband takes our daughter next door with him and invites our neighbor to church. To my surprise he said yes! That afternoon I was reviewing my daughters Cubbie's verse with her. It was Matthew 22:39 "Love your neighbor as yourself."  As I reviewed the story of good Samaritan with her, she brought up what she saw daddy do the day before by offering to help the man on the side of road. What a great example! Later, as I saw two of our kids sitting with/on my husband and our neighbor beside him I realized how thankful I am for him. This weekend our children were given a living example of "loving your neighbor" that had it been left up to me, they would have never seen. I'm more a "Let's pray about it and think about it first." type of a person. This can be very good and wise in many situations, but it holds me back sometimes. I love how my husband instantly responds to the Holy Spirit sometimes before he's even done talking! Yes, he's impulsive, but being impulsive with loving people is always a good thing.

I'm just being honest, as a stay at home mom its easy for me to feel like a loner on the parenting front. I brake up 90% of the fights, kiss 90% of the boo-boos  and I'm there to comfort the bad dreams or tuck someone back in in the middle of night. This weekend helped me realize that while my husband might never know where the children's tylenol is kept or what sippy cup goes with what kid he is such an important aspect of this parenting team. It's kind of a given that mom will always be around, but a daddy who is present, god-fearing, and living example is a rock in a child's life.

While his impulsiveness drives me crazy, it's also challenging. I need to stop hiding behind what I think is wisdom but what is actually a lack of faith and start doing. Can you imagine God asking me why I didn't help or talk to someone and my answer sounding like "Well, I thought about it, but I carefully weighed all options and believed it was best to not do anything." How foolish. I've been challenged to listen and ACT on the Holy Spirits prompting in my life. And, to make it even better, I've been challenged by my husband doing the very thing that typically makes me roll my eyes!