In His Shoes

As we head into Valentine's week (yep, it's a whole week now, didn't you hear?), how we show love has been on my mind a lot. It's easy to love on my kids and my boy, but there's a lot to being loving and showing them kindness and love.

Yesterday right before James left for his SuperBowl party we were frantically running around trying to make the house decent for our dinner company, and I found myself starting to fuss at him over leaving the coffee filter, etc. in the coffee pot instead of cleaning it out that morning. Silly, right? There's no other word--I was fussing. That's even sillier! Things undone drive me NUTS--it's the OCD that hounds me. So as I started to bring it up to him, I stopped...and put myself in his shoes. He has made coffee every day for the last week or so, where we usually switch off. He hasn't said anything, he's done it gladly and even made my coffee most days. He's spoiled me. So, why does it matter if I have to throw away the filter and rinse the carafe? Really--DOES it matter? Did it matter enough for me to "correct" him last night? Nope. That was MY issue, not HIS. So I stopped myself. And I told him what I had planned to say and why I stopped, and thanked him for making coffee without complaint. It was such a small thing--but those small things, when left unchecked, can add up to big resentments.

So that's my challenge this week, girlfriends--let's check ourselves before we fuss at our boys and our kids. I think there's a happy week on the horizon at my house...I really, really need to take my own advice when it comes to Kayci. She's been experimenting lately with a little sass and some clothing choices that I wouldn't choose, and I need to keep my mouth shut as she's not hurting anyone and she's still totally appropriate. It will be a challenge for me, but the payoff is worth it. Wish me luck!