Parallel Living or Not

Saturday night we wrapped up the last of the weekend’s open houses.  –It really went out with a bang too, our friend and their foreign exchange student did an ethnic themed open house, the big hit with the kids was a piñata every half hour – How cool is that?! 

I came home about 9:30 and ran across this little gem of a quote on Facebook:

Parallel Living vs. Entwined Living:           

Ecclesiastes 4:12 says that a cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Sometimes we choose to live parallel lives that never intersect, or that happens a little bit at the time.  Entwined lives include  activities and interests that drive us together (physical intimacy, shared interests, purposeful interaction.)  God didn’t bring you and your husband together so that you could live parallel lives. He brought you together so you could live entwined lives and impact the kingdom.  ~ via The Busy Mom

That pretty much hit me right between the eyes.  This time in our lives right now has quite a bit of the parallel element to it.  It’s pretty rare that I can be of much help to Bronz with the kids in tow… And he’s swamped-busy and can’t really flex his schedule my way.   That’s ok to a degree, cuz those things are basically ‘unchangeables’.  However it’s not a rut I want to be stuck in, or comfortable with.  It also isn’t very comfortable or easy to build in marriage time right now.  I did have an idea… Bronz was going to work all night in order to beat the rain.  Bedtime was already past for the babies so just maybe… >enter< my fabulous family…  Of course, they could have the kids sleep at their place. Yay da Yay. By the time all details were in place  & Bronz was starting a new field it was around 11:00 p.m.  I won’t bore you with all the details… It just takes a ton of intention to make time together happen. 

This marriage thing isn’t a piece of cake.  It is valuable.  And value isn’t cheap.  It takes time, energy, sacrifice. It hurts, it helps.  My diamond ring didn’t happen onto my finger, Bronz didn’t pick it up in the end aisles at Menards either.  Why, cuz it’s valuable, precious, significant.  And our marriage is so much more so.  It’s not disposable, or cheap.  And so why do I expect the upkeep to just accidentally ‘happen’?

I hopped in the tractor and rode until 3:00 a.m.  We didn’t talk about anything big, I actually scrunched up on the floor for a little bit and dozed.  Then rotated between the my.right.leg’s.asleep.seat and the bounce.your.head.off.the.roof spot. (If I were President there would be a Buddy Seat in Every Tractor)  In a lot of ways it was a lot of trouble for not very much payback… And yet it wasn’t.  Because we invested in this marriage.  This marriage, that God gave us to be a reflection of his relationship with us. And that’s worthwhile.  That’s worth dragging crabby, tired kids to church on Sunday, that’s worth drinking a couple extra cups of coffee, myself.  It’s even worth the sore back…  Let me tell you, a tractor sure doesn’t have sleep numbers.