The cute story I meant to write last time

Years and years ago I was listening to a speaker on the radio tell a little story about her life. That story has stuck with me all these years and I have recently seen bits of it showing in my own life. It was a very good story about the relationship between her husband and her daughter it was also a story about the relationship between her husband and herself. I wish I could remember the name of this speaker but I was so young when I heard the story that I really have no idea who she was. I am going to share that story or at least the way I interpreted that story with you.

This woman had a loving husband and a toddler daughter. She loved her husband very much but had noticed some of the spark was gone, their life had become routine. It was a comfortable routine nothing wrong with it so she had nothing to complain about.

Now her darling young daughter was a daddy's girl. She had her daddy wrapped around her pinky finger just like so many darling, dimpled baby girls do. Every evening when he came home from work she was the first one he would greet. At dinner time he would serve the little girl carefully cutting up her food. He would shower his daughter with love, affection, hugs and kisses.

The wife watched this show of affection day after day, night after night and perhaps felt a small spark of jealousy. I am not 100% sure on this but I can imagine she was probably thinking "Here I do all of the work, I wash his clothes, I clean his house, I take care of his daughter, I even cooked his meal! Yet it is our daughter who is receiving all of his love and affection. I want him to greet me when he gets home with hugs and kisses, I want him to serve me tenderly at the dinner table, I want him to devote some of his time and attention to me!" She was a smart wife though actually she was very clever. She had the idea to watch her toddler daughter to see just what it is that she does that makes her so deserving of her fathers love.

So the next day she paid attention to her daughter while she set to making dinner. She observed this little girl waiting at the window watching for her daddy to come home. She heard her squeal with joy as he pulled in to the drive and watched her run to greet her father at the door. She had the biggest smile on her face as she jumped into his arms spread wide ready to give her a hug. She kissed him on his cheek getting closer to his ear to tell him about her day. She listened to her daddy as he talked about his day at the dinner table while he cut up her meat and vegetables. She did not hold back in her out pouring of love for her father and he in turn did not hold back from pouring out his love on her.

The very next day the wife was ready. When her husband walked in the door she was right there with their daughter ready to greet him a smile on her face, a kiss on her lips, her ear turned to listen. She expressed her love towards her husband with the same excitement and enthusiasm as her daughter had been expressing it to her father. Her actions yielded a similar result as her daughters actions. Her husband responded to her in love and affection just as he did toward his daughter.

Ok the story is over. Wasn't it cute? It has so many morals to it too.

The first is men are visual, they need something to react to. Once they have it watch out because they will react! This father reacted to his daughters positive attitude with an equally positive attitude. If your husband sees that you are happy he will be happy too. Keep that in mind it can save a bad day in a heart beat the way you react is going to be mirrored in your husband. Try it!

Second and perhaps my favorite is the way this story also seems to correlate with the relationship we have to our Heavenly Father. How do you greet Him? Are you rushing towards Him singing His praise, declaring how much better your day is because of Him? Are you listening to Him? Have you taken the time to get wrapped up in His loving arms? Love Christ the way a child would love their father and watch the blessing get showered upon you like Heavenly kisses.

Third and very important is as the story goes the way you treat your husband. Have you ever stepped back and looked at the way you act when your husband walks in the door? Do you pay attention to what you say? Give your husband something to look forward to when he walks in the door. A smile that can melt away the stress of the day and  words that lift him up will bring a far better reaction then silence and a frown or a long list of everything that went wrong. Get excited about the love you have for your husband and show it to him. I can not promise a smile from you will always result in a smile from your husband. Life as we know it goes a little bit deeper then this story, prayer matched with love however can do amazing things. It has certainly changed my life.

Now comes the fun part about how this story relates to me. I have a toddler daughter ha~ha and it gets even better... she is a daddy's girl. I have watched her go through the same actions the little girl in the story went through. Watching for her daddy to come home, squealing as she rushes to greet him at the door, a big smile on her face ready to hug him and kiss him and give him all the love she stored up in her heart for him over the day. I have also watched my husbands reaction to this outward expression of love from his baby girl. The frown lines on his forehead disappear, the serious look on his face is replaced with a smile, the stress that you can see in his physical demeanor just melts away as he scoops up his daughter in a daddy hug and opens himself up to the love.

I have also paid attention to how I act when my husband gets home and the reactions that I have gotten over the years. Every time I have let a negative attitude on my part get in the way of a cheerful greeting it has always yielded a negative reaction. This was very true in our lives just recently. My husband came home mid afternoon stressed out needing a break and some encouragement unfortunately he came home to an equally stressed out wife. The bad part is instead of greeting him at all I just went off on a rant. I was hopping mad about stuff that was really of little to no consequence to the two of us and was ranting and raving about it. His reaction says it all. He barely said a word to me (probably a very good thing) and he just walked right back out the door he came in and left. I was speechless and felt like a complete chump. I robbed my husband of the much needed break he came home for. I also denied myself the opportunity to spend time with him. I did apologize, I also logged that moment in my lessons learned memory bank.

First lesson stop letting the drama of someone else's life affect me to the point that I am screaming at my husband about it . Second lesson even if I am having a bad day my hopping mad moment can wait for some other time my husband needs me to be the positive force in his life when he comes home.

When I greet him with a smile, a happy attitude and a pleasant "hey honey how was your day" it gives him the chance to unwind, to breath. Brent's home coming at the end of the day usually brings an enormous sense of peace to our home. Forcing myself to be happy on those bad days during the first few minutes of him being home usually puts the bad day into a completely different perspective. I get my chance to talk about it, we come up with solutions to my unsolvable problems and then it is over and we both move forward.

Oh on the good days when Kady (our toddler) and I are both waiting ready to scream with glee that daddy is home or I am waiting with all five of our kids excited to see him well that single happy moment makes the rest of the day that much better.

I do try to remind myself often of the little girl who greeted her father in love and the wife who followed her daughters example. My husband and my Heavenly Father both need to see that outward expression of love and devotion daily in order for me to grow closer to them. As you can see I do not always succeed but I am thankful for the reminder in that cute story so that I can try even harder the next day.

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