Last
Thursday was Valentine’s Day and things didn’t exactly go as planned. Instead of showing my wife I loved her with
flowers and gifts, I showed her what an idiot I can be at times. But
fortunately, I learned a very important lesson…Love is, above all else, the
gift of oneself!
The
day started out great. We ate
breakfast and then drove to work together as we always do. We even stopped along
the way and bought flowers for the girls at our office. But sometimes things
don’t always go right at work and a phone call from a customer with a “concern
about billing” really upset my wife. It wasn’t their request for her to do a lot
of extra work that upset her. What upset her was that she had already been doing
all of that extra work for many months, and they didn’t realize it nor
appreciate it. In fact they implied she wasn’t doing a good job and nothing
could have been further from the truth. I have rarely seen her so upset and frustrated.
Of
course, being the genius that I am, I showed a complete lack of understanding and made things a whole lot
worse by telling her she was wrong to get upset about it. She wasn’t wrong to
be upset about it, she just needed someone to talk to who would listen… and I failed.
I failed to give her what she needed when she needed it most. She got mad at me
and I don’t blame her. But I got mad back at her and that was really wrong.
What an idiot I can be!
After
a really difficult work day we skipped going out to dinner and drove straight home. We were both tired so we decided to take a
shower to wash away the problems of the day. I got done first and put on my
best looking jeans, a fancy shirt and a dab of cologne thinking maybe if I look
and smell my best she will forgive me. She was taking a really long time to get
ready so I decided to go for a short walk on the beach. I grabbed a cold beer
and a cigar and headed down by the water. (I rarely smoke cigars or drink beer
during the week, but since I made so many other mistakes already that day, what
was a couple more!)
It was
a beautiful night and as I neared our home I looked up to see a huge crescent moon and what seemed like a million
stars. It reminded me that I needed to ask God to forgive me as well as my
wife. Just then I smacked into a brick fire ring and my drink went flying all
over me, my cigar went flying, and I fell face first onto the ground. When I
stood up, my face was covered with wet sand, my shirt was ruined and my cigar was
missing completely. Now, I not only felt like an idiot….I looked like an idiot!
I glanced once again
towards the heavens and began to laugh out loud. God, you’re trying to tell
me something aren’t you. You’re trying to tell me I can’t show my wife my love for
her by how I look….I need to show it by how I act!
The brightest glow is from Love Light.
~ Grey Livingston
No comments:
Post a Comment