That Extra Effort

This may not be news to you, but taking care of your wife makes your life easier. You might say wait, “I don’t have one of those in my life.” Well, that’s ok because I believe the principle here applies pretty generally.

I had a “husband epiphany” a few years back, while we were struggling more than we currently are month to month, in discovering that upgrading my wife’s “hair-cuts” to “hair-styles” made her more confident in her appearance, which in turn made for a happier home altogether. Don’t get me wrong, my wife is the most beautiful creature on the planet, but when she felt frustrated by her appearance or less than her best, in a selfish sense, I paid part of the price.

At a certain point in our marriage I began to take pleasure in grabbing my wife’s favorite drink from Sonic Drive-in and taking it to her elementary classroom for her. Just a small pick me up, but I could tell that it was like a waterfall of relief to her.

It may sound narcissistic, but I began to realize that the little things I would do, or the effort I would make to deliver a creative valentine on Valentines Day would give my wife something to “mention” to her friends, thus upping my “husband points”. Have you ever had a colleague or friends say to you, “Stop that, you’re making us look bad?” Well, I take great pleasure in the thought of my wife’s friend turning to her husband wherever she is reading her Facebook feed and saying, “why don’t you ever do that”.  Of course, this in no way can be a main reason for doing nice things for your spouse, but it doesn’t hurt either. Well…it doesn’t hurt me anyway.

I find that I can light up my wife’s eyes even brighter than with a great Christmas gift if I can surprise her by doing some odd chore that needs doing, but one she might not expect me to do. I pity those husbands out there who are always on top of chores, repairs and cleaning. In my experience, you give no room for that wonderful surprise when you actually get it done. If she expects you’ll get it done anyway, it can never be considered a gift. Of course, I say this all tongue in cheek, but you hopefully get my drift.

I find this principle applies to my spiritual life as well. The more small moments I can take to make that extra effort in my relationship with Jesus, makes a giant difference in my mood and overall sense of well-being. It’s amazing what a short prayer can do when I’m stressed and under a deadline. It’s important to spend concentrated time with Christ just as it’s important to spend those valuable moments with your spouse. But sometimes it’s the little things, the spontaneous prayers and moments you might never have thought would be that important that can make all the difference in your day to day existence.

I challenge you to make that extra effort this week and see what kind of a difference it makes, both at home and in your spiritual life.