Sunday afternoon, I sat in the front room looking across the street as my husband, with absolute joy on his face, squealed the tires on our suburban. I prayed the chains that were connected between our hitch and the Semi that was stuck in the mud in our neighbors yard didn't break. It was a beautiful afternoon and this was a great day for him. In between naps and Trick My Truck (one of the kids favorites), we even watched a show called, "Extreme mobile Home Makeover" on CMT. If all that doesn't tell you we are from Arkansas...lol.
I couldn't quit watching it because I was so entranced with the couple. They were fairly young, 30's, smart and clean. They had 6 kids, 3 boys and 3 girls. They all lived in a mobile home. A 2 bedroom mobile home. A falling apart, old, 2 bedroom mobile home. The girls shared a bedroom and the boys slept on the couch. The oldest looked all of maybe 12-13 years old. Cabinet doors were falling off, the roof leaked, everything that could have been duct taped together was. I lot of the problems could have been fixed with a little elbow grease, yet this wife seemed so happy and content with not only her house but her husband. Of course they were on TV and they were getting ready to have the nicest double wide in the park, but still, she didn't say a single negative thing about her husband. I craved what she had...true thankfulness and contentment. I had to wonder if our house was in shambles (more so than it is) and the skirting needing to be put back up if I would still be giving high fives to my husband and all smiles at him or if I would be duct taping him to something.
At one point the wife asked her husband all excited, "can you believe we are getting a new house? Do you think I'll get a new dishwasher?" He smiled and shook his head no, "the other one wasn't scratched up." When the family came home, they were all tears and so excited to have their new home. They went from a single wide 2 bedroom to a double wide 3 bedroom. Now with 6 kids, this still isn't a lot of space. They weren't coming home to a new EXTREME home makeover from Ty, but you would have thought they were. She said, "It is more than I ever dreamed of having for myself, and everything my kids deserve."
I grew up in a family that was big on dreaming and while having hopes and dreams are not wrong, we were also taught to be so discontent with our situation so that we'd always have a reason to work harder to achieve more to have more. It was on the wall to have big dreams, we'd go shopping for brand new cars and houses and fur coats and know exactly how much they would cost. Try them on, drive them, tour them. Write out everything we wanted and how much it would take for us to make that kind of money to earn it and just become sick with what we had wanting more. I now want the opposite. I want less so that we can give more. I want to have a grateful heart for just having groceries on the table vs a grain of sand in my heart wanting steak instead of hamburger. This has been an issue of struggle in our marriage too.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and find plenty to be thankful for with your family, home, life and spouses. Write a letter to your spouse this week and share just 5 things with him that you are thankful for him about.
I couldn't quit watching it because I was so entranced with the couple. They were fairly young, 30's, smart and clean. They had 6 kids, 3 boys and 3 girls. They all lived in a mobile home. A 2 bedroom mobile home. A falling apart, old, 2 bedroom mobile home. The girls shared a bedroom and the boys slept on the couch. The oldest looked all of maybe 12-13 years old. Cabinet doors were falling off, the roof leaked, everything that could have been duct taped together was. I lot of the problems could have been fixed with a little elbow grease, yet this wife seemed so happy and content with not only her house but her husband. Of course they were on TV and they were getting ready to have the nicest double wide in the park, but still, she didn't say a single negative thing about her husband. I craved what she had...true thankfulness and contentment. I had to wonder if our house was in shambles (more so than it is) and the skirting needing to be put back up if I would still be giving high fives to my husband and all smiles at him or if I would be duct taping him to something.
At one point the wife asked her husband all excited, "can you believe we are getting a new house? Do you think I'll get a new dishwasher?" He smiled and shook his head no, "the other one wasn't scratched up." When the family came home, they were all tears and so excited to have their new home. They went from a single wide 2 bedroom to a double wide 3 bedroom. Now with 6 kids, this still isn't a lot of space. They weren't coming home to a new EXTREME home makeover from Ty, but you would have thought they were. She said, "It is more than I ever dreamed of having for myself, and everything my kids deserve."
I grew up in a family that was big on dreaming and while having hopes and dreams are not wrong, we were also taught to be so discontent with our situation so that we'd always have a reason to work harder to achieve more to have more. It was on the wall to have big dreams, we'd go shopping for brand new cars and houses and fur coats and know exactly how much they would cost. Try them on, drive them, tour them. Write out everything we wanted and how much it would take for us to make that kind of money to earn it and just become sick with what we had wanting more. I now want the opposite. I want less so that we can give more. I want to have a grateful heart for just having groceries on the table vs a grain of sand in my heart wanting steak instead of hamburger. This has been an issue of struggle in our marriage too.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and find plenty to be thankful for with your family, home, life and spouses. Write a letter to your spouse this week and share just 5 things with him that you are thankful for him about.
Comments
I enjoy readying your blog! I think it is great! If you read mine, it sounds like a broken record. My husband has been gone since October and let me tell ya' it has made me appreciate him so much more and good god do I miss him!