Sweet Husbands

"There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage."  -- Martin Luther

I watched my pregnant friend's husband rub her shoulders last Friday night.  It was tender but nonchalant...perfectly normal.  I saw an elderly man cradle the hand of his wife on his way into church.  I watched a father with a brutal work schedule smile happily as he had the rare joy of dropping his daughter off at school.  

My own dear husband texted me a note of support as I went off to San Francisco at dinner time headed to a meeting about saving ice-skating in Yosemite.  It would be hours away...through the rigamarole of homework and bedtime and little kids.  He went with it.

No sigh.

No wishing it weren't so.

Just support.

I'd like to give a shout out to sweet husbands.

They are often ignored, taken for granted and relegated to the status of ho hum.

Sit-coms like to make them look dumb.

Women's magazines like to make them seem extinct.

Plenty of commercials sell them as nerdy or inept.

It just isn't so.

They are hard working, tireless, considerate and most of all, there.

Day in -- day out -- they show up.

They are the ones with the baby in the front pack at the grocery store muddling their way through.

They are the ones who clean up the dishes, fold the laundry, hug the momma who just found lice in their daughter's hair, again, and clean up the puke.

They hold their wife's hand as they deal with a cancer diagnosis, a job loss or a phone call that makes a nightmare real.

They work hard and worry.

They are the backbone of so many families -- unnoticed and unappreciated.

Today, I am grateful for my gentle, fun-loving, encouraging husband.

He makes me a better person.

He helps me to reach for my dreams.

He tolerates my sassy weirdness and best of all, he likes it.

He makes me laugh.

His loving acceptance and encouragement have been a saving grace for me for years, 

twenty three to be exact -- but who's counting?

I don't know how to explain the supreme comfort in being loved that way but I hope for it, and pray for it, for my own children.

Here is my prayer:

Lord, please help the person they love to be generous, kind, warm-hearted and loving.

Help them to be accepting and forgiving.

Help them to find the good and hold their tongues with the criticism.  

Help them to be honest and fun.

Help them to find real love, enduring love, hopeful love.

Please...

Thank you to the husbands who love their wives and cherish their families.

Thank you to the husbands who man up and do the dirty work...whatever that may be.

Thank you to the husbands who work and work and work and then come home to work some more.

Thank you to the husbands who don't hold back...who encourage and laugh and dance and cheer.

Thank you.

You are a blessing and most definitely the definition of Grace-in-the-Ordinary. :)

Land's End, San Francisco -- March 2013