Sweet Return

I was greeted by my husband when I returned home from the Women's Retreat. I was greeted by "him whom my soul loves" (Song of Solomon 3:4). The kids were still inside and he came out to welcome me home. It was sweet to have a moment to reconnect before the kids were at my feet and in my arms. Because although I love them with every fiber of my being, they were also part of the reason I had lost sight of Patrick. 


I have this problem with knowing things in my head but not letting them penetrate my heart. The Lord taught me a lot this weekend (and I am sure there will be plenty posts to follow), but one that was clear to me, as my friends and I were coming home, was Patrick needed to be a priority again. A priority in a very intentional way. A priority in a romantic, purposeful and deliberate sort of way. So when he greeted me with a simple kiss before the kids knew I was home, it was a sweet reminder that my man missed me and that cultivating our love was priority number one.


I also came home to a sink that was no longer dripping. A sink that had been dripping for close to a year. And while my husband is extremely handy (see examples A, B, and C), he didn't seem to think that the faucet dripping was a high priority. And every time I would ask him to please fix it, I would say it nicely, because the irony was not lost on me.  :)

"A continual dripping on a rainy day   

and a quarrelsome wife are alike." Proverbs 27:15

I wouldn't nag. I wouldn't gripe. I would kindly remind him that it needed to be fixed. And he did it. He chose to fix it so that it would be done before I got home. And I love him for it. And I am thankful I didn't manipulate him into doing it, because the gift of him finishing it while I was gone, is that much sweeter.

I came home to the laundry and the dishes being done. O, stop my beating heart. I came home to kids that seemed to have grown a foot in my absence. I also came home to kids that were filthy. But a good kind of filthy. The jumping in leaves, playing in dirt and being outside all weekend, sort of filthy. And they were perfect. They were mine. And they had been in good hands all weekend. 

And so I am home. Home with those I love more deeply for having been away. Home with those who hold my heart. 

Thank you, Lord, for a sweet return.

~cheryl~