I've read quite a few books over the last 2 weeks. Many have been good and more have been mediocre. My favorite "bedrest material" so far has been this book, borrowed from my mom's bookshelf. I'm only about halfway through and, while it may not be revolutionary if you've been around solid teaching on home and family, it is just the fresh encouragement I've been needing to keep on keeping on.

There are many great nuggets in this easy and quick read (I read half the book yesterday and will definitely finish the other half today). A favorite so far?

You need, husband and wife, drastic new exposures to each other. With a true pioneering spirit that's excited, cautious, relentless, you need to push into each other's hearts where no one else has ever been before, and discover, all on your own, what has never before been fathomed in your partner by anyone but God: the dark places, the bright places, the agonies and the ecstasies. And the more you come upon, the more you gather it all up in your arms and say, "This is all mine, God's gift to me," and hold tightly this amazing, labyrinthine, dearest treasure who is your Other Self.

The more children we have, the more years Daniel is in full-time ministry, and just the more life he and I live together, the easier it is to become strangers fulfilling shared (and many not-so-shared, to be brutally honest) obligations. There are too many days when all our daylight hours have been lived with him doing his thing and me doing mine, followed by night hours spent side by side in body but not in soul and spirit. It is too easy in the busy pace of life to speak very few words to each other besides, "Can you wash up the baby?" or "Don't wait up for me; I'll be out late."

One thing Daniel and I have begun being more disciplined about in 2007 is carving out intentional time for talking about the real things in our hearts. What a world of difference it has made! I have found myself feeling content in companionship, connected to what Daniel is doing because I get to hear firsthand about much of his activities, and stirred in my faith because there is a daily conversation about what God is speaking and doing.

Each morning, we settle the children and then sit to share a cup of coffee (well, for many weeks I wasn't drinking coffee because it would make me sick, but you know what I mean...) and conversation. It works for us, since evenings are at a much higher premium when working with college students than 7:00am is. I'm not a morning person, so trying to think and speak intelligently at that time is a challenge for me, but it is one I am find is well worth the effort. Not only is it a profitable and pleasant time, but the rest of my day is dramatically altered: I don't succumb to feelings of being alone, disconnected, or overwhelmed nearly as easily when the first items of my day's agenda are time with the Lord followed by time with Daniel.

Of course, three months later we are starting to be less consistent in this routine. The constant interruptions by little people (I must at least gratefully acknowledge that they are more easily entertained first thing in the day than they are later) and the pressing needs represented in long "to do" lists, combined with human nature's tendency to get bored with and give up on disciplines, has resulted in slack of late.

Yesterday and today, though, I am stirred afresh to know and treasure the amazing gift I have been given in my husband. God didn't tell me to marry so I wouldn't have to lock the front door at night or mow the lawn any more. He wants me to partner with this man in together representing Himself and His Church to the world. I can't do this if I have abandoned knowing and valuing the very person who makes me a "couple."

At any rate, I am recommending the book. There is much more addressed than just the husband/wife relationship. I am appreciating this reading very, very much and think it may bless others, too!

Edit: Here is another excerpt I read just now that I thought I would include, too. My dad has quoted it before, but it's worth hearing again!

I was visiting friends who'd just celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary. The husband tramped in from work leaving clods of dirt on the carpet. I said, "His boots certainly bring the dirt in." "Yes," she smiled, and went for the vacuum, "but they bring him in, too."