Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Update and my thoughts on our trip

OK - so DH's leg is healing nicely. It was SO hard to keep him down this weekend. The doctor told him to keep his leg elevated and to lay low until he saw him again and DH was going CRAZY. He was antsy about sitting at home and really wanted to go out to the boat to "rest" but I knew if he went out, he'd want to take the boat somewhere - and that is not keeping his leg elevated and laying low. He saw both the doctor and surgeon yesterday and had the drain removed and both said he's doing great. He sees the doctor again on Friday and the surgeon next week to get the "all clear" but atleast he's no longer restricted on activity. So DH is no longer cranky. LOL

Lauren did well with school and dealing with the train/bus. It's a bit of a pain because the train and bus schedule don't work out really well so she's having to take the 6:51 train in the morning to catch the 7:46 bus to get to the campus. The next bus after that is 9AM which is when her first class starts 4 days a week so she's having to get to school an hour early. It's not terrible once school is underway because I told her that this way she can get a bite to eat and do some schoolwork. What was NOT good today was doing all of this transportation - and getting to her ONE class that she has today and having a professor walk in at 9:10 to say that the professor of that class can't make it today and class is canceled. Yeah - we're going to have to see if she can have the professor e-mail her if he's not going to show on the day she only has that one class.

So, while on our boat trip, we had an experience that made me think some things through and wanted to blog on it. We went to Mystic Seaport over the last weekend and we met up with some others that we know from our yacht club the second day we were there. We all tied up to the same dock so Bob and I and the two girls went and helped them all pull in and tie up - 3 boats in all. 1 of the boats was the same as ours and the owners are pretty experienced as are their children so they were easy to put in but the other 2 couples are newer to boating/cruising. We got the one boat in while the other boat putted around waiting for everyone to help and when we got them in, the husband said to me "Thanks SO much for your help. My wife knows NOTHING about any of this and has no desire to learn so it's hard to do it by myself."

I thought about what he said for the rest of the day and though about our last 17 years of boating. I had no idea anything about boating before we got our first boat in 1991 but I learned pretty quickly because my husband needed help if this was going to work. He has learned to do a lot of things on his own because he likes to take the boat out by himself, but with our help, he's able to do a lot more and have an easier time of it. If I had never learned to do things on the boat and do them well, quickly and without thought, his job would be MUCH tougher and it would possibly even put us and the boat in danger at times.

I realized that this translates to a marriage relationship really well. How many women just don't want to learn to be a helper to their husband because it's beneath them or it's just not what they want to do? How much does that limit what our own husbands can do in their own God given roles and jobs? If I didn't learn to be careful with money, would my husband have to give up the ministry because he can't support us? If I didn't learn to cook and keep home, would he be able to focus on God's calling for him? I can see that it would not only be limiting and/or damaging to the husband but the whole family as well!

Even in the same way, it can apply to husbands. If a husband does not want to learn a skill to get a good job, how limiting is that to his family? Is he crippling his children in seeing a father who is motivated, hardworking and diligent? Is he causing his wife to struggle with fear and trusting the Lord?

I can see that by learning all we can about our jobs and roles, then we not only are blessed by being in the will of God but we also bless our spouse and family in being able to go farther than we ever could without that knowledge. This makes me want to do some MORE learning on becoming a woman who has a heart for the Lord and her family. To learn to be more careful with my time and my money. To learn to be a Titus 2 woman and to find more wisdom in the Word that I can pass on to other younger moms and wives.

Learning to tie a rope may be a small thing but in being able to secure a boat quickly and easily so as to bring the family into port safely is much bigger than you think. Cleaning the bathroom may be a small thing but having a haven for our children and our husbands is much bigger than we think.

2 comments:

Thursday's Child said...

Wow! Good analogy. And it just fell in your lap. You can't beat that!

Unknown said...

Wow, Ann... that is really a deep thought. It is part of the prevailing attitude nowadays though. I do find it quite sad.