"Storage Wars" & Cereal

You think that when you get married all of the dark places of your lover's personality will finally come to light. This is what friends will tell you. It's the stuff Cosmo articles and Dear Abby's are made of. You may even believe, nay, hope, that they will wake up each morning realizing how grateful they are to have you. Not True. Thanks to my mom and personal marriage Sherpa I am in love with my husband but not blindly. He is human and I am not perfect (saying it until I believe it ;-)). So with this knowledge in mind I anticipated bad-breathed, crusty-eyed morningtides for the both of us. I know there will continue to be days where we would rather be left alone but not by ourselves. When we would want presence without a cuddle & conversation. I know that he won't love every meal I cook even though he raves about my culinary skills (which are aplenty). I am learning, much to my chagrin, often times guys just want a giant bowl of cereal no matter what satiating vittles are on the menu. What is becoming more clear is that after I have said, "it's ok, I'm fine" one too many times and the day's tension has coalesced it is not his sinful nature that I have to worry about; it is my own.

We had a premarital exercise which I remember in part. At one point we had to write down what we felt our more wanton tendencies were. I knew the answer. 

"I can be prideful, stubborn and manipulative." 

I answered quickly as to besmirch my own name before anyone else could...then I became very proud of myself for being so self-aware and even more impressed with my own self-awareness (I need Jesus, I know). I thought, James is so lucky to be marrying such a self-aware and honest woman and that should make up for all the crap he will have to endure. 

As I follow Christ I am called to move beyond the pride of confession into a LIFE of repentance, a constant turning around in the small secret moments of my everyday. So even when crusty-eyed James rolls over on the wrong side of the bed wanting to eat an abysmal bowl of cereal, alone (with me) in a room while watching "Swamp Monsters on the Hunt for Bigfoot Storage Wars" I must move past self-awareness to action. This is the everyday stuff of marriage that you fuss about in the moment and laugh about the next day wondering how your underwear got wound so tightly. It's these times of in-consequence when my evil doppelganger drops in to assert herself. She has no other name...she's Mo. She is the one I have to deal with...not James. This is not an exercise in self-deprecation, no. I mean, I'm awesome. Rather it is the (time-consuming but this-will-only-sting-for-a-minute) sanctification process. Pride must be deflated, stubbornness tamed and motives redirected in these lighter times so that holiness, love and humility can be tended to and strengthened for the heavier times. 

So all that to say, the profound marital lesson that I have learned thus far, ladies.

  Let your husbands watch River Monsters and eat cereal. It'll make them happy and it's less work for you.