This week, my wife was sharing a couple thoughts she had on a passage of Scripture she had been studying. Her insights into the text were so good. As a preacher and teacher, I felt it my instant impulse to take her outstanding insights and turn them into a sermon or a lesson down the road. Seeing my mind turning, she smirked, “Now don’t you dare steal that thought!” She knows me. I love that about her. She loves God’s Word. I love that about her too. More than anything else we discuss, I love the conversations that start, or move to, or finish up with a Bible passage or a lesson God’s teaching us.
Our conversation that evening got me thinking. How often do I do that for her? How often do I say something she wants to share with someone else because of its instant impact on her? How often do I bring good news home that she wants to share with others? How often do I share first what God’s doing in me so she’s challenged to grow deeper with Him because of my walk?
Now don’t misunderstand me. Just because I am a pastor and we are a ministry family doesn’t mean we don’t have any warts…or wars for that matter. We’ve had our knock-down drag-outs over the toothpaste tube and such. We vent to one another. Frustrate one another. And I’m sure, I’ve even irritated her once or twice.
What I hope to do, though, is something I don’t tell her nearly often enough that she does for me. I want to make her better. A better wife just because she’s married to me. A better mother just because she parents with me. A better Christian just because she walks life with me.
So dear Diana, take this as my public promise not to steal your thoughts on that passage we discussed the other day. But please, don’t stop sharing them with me. They make me better. And I didn’t have to steal that to share it.
Typestry 