After all these years, I think I might have finally gotten it right for the first time.
I remembered Valentine's Day.
I had a card for her on the side table Thursday morning when she went downstairs to read her bible.
I had flowers delivered to my wife at work.
I had a date arranged for us to meet for lunch.
I had arrangements for dinner on Friday evening along with tickets for a concert for an outstanding musician named David Templeton who played piano and guitar.
Don't worry, I won't let it go to my head.
Mostly because it has taken me way too long to at last get close to being on top of the game the way I should have been all along.
You see, I'm pretty sure I had it figured out when I was wooing her to try to win her heart in the beginning. I would take her to dinner and movies. I would write her love letters, call her on the phone and we'd talk for hours (and it was expensive to call long distance in-state in those days - before cell phones and unlimited night time minutes). We would go for hikes and long drives just to be together. We went to see Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith in concert. This unheard of guy named Rich Mullins opened the show. What a fun time we had!
After we got married and started having children, life happened. I had to change careers just so we could eat and attempt to keep a roof over our heads. I started college and spent ten years doing that and working full time. In all that, I forgot to remember how to spend time winning my wife's heart. Our dates became everyday tasks like going to the grocery store. Going to see a play meant spending the evening at the middle school or high school when our kids were in them. Musical events were the same thing. Seeing a movie, meant renting a video and watching it on our TV. The pizazz and romance had definitely disappeared.
Now, with almost 23 years together and two of the three kids out of the house, I'm remembering again how to invest in the most important person in my life.
Sorry honey that it has taken so long! There will be more good things to come!
So hopefully, I'm finally starting to get it right again.
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6 comments:
Yippee!!!!
I love you dearly, but I must confess I love the romance and eagerly look forward to it.:D
Who said you were slow, dear? :P
Your adoring wife.
I confess, I got a few tears in my eyes when I read this. It's good to see you do things like this, good to see you two "falling in love" again. It's literally an answer to many prayers for you. And I'm learning a lot by watching.
So, in the colloquialism of some of my old high school friends: Props, man! Or, as I might say: Fantastically well done, sir!
In any case, I love you!
David, you cannot even begin to imagine how short the memory of a woman who is being wholly loved and valued and romanced . . . keep it up and not only will she *not* remember what you desire her to forget, she will never again want to.
LOVED LOVED LOVED reading this ... for Kerry who is more valuable than all the jewels in the world, for your kids who are watching you and will be following your example for better (rather than for worse) and the hope you give them, for you who will find unfathomable love and joy and delight in the wife of your youth, and for those of us who still want to have hope that there really are a few good men still out there, loving their wives and willing to learn and be teachable along the way.
***
Chris - I think that's the first time I've ever heard, "Props, man!" Cool!
I meant to say it the first time around... nice The Princess Bride reference. :D
My husband needs to read this. I was trying to explain this very thing to him yesterday and he gave me the deer in the headlights look!
My bet is that though you felt you may have been lax in the romance department for some years, the kindness, understanding and friendship has always been there.
I've had those same "deer in the headlights looks" when my wife has tried to explain it to me.
Sometimes ONLY GOD can get through to us thick-headed men.
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