Marital Stresses

I like today's girlfriend devotional.

It took me a while to decide which devotional to post, this morning.

I'd been having many stresses in the last few days--my 12-year-old is a bear to get out of bed in the morning; I found out that I couldn't send messages through my yahoo account--still trying to get that fixed, thank goodness I have the back up of Google; I'm PMSing; Brent keeps wanting me up at 6...when my body wants an extra 30 minutes; my to-do list is really tight on deadlines at the moment......

But some of my stress has also been with my husband. I follow a blog (you will see the link in my blog list) called Married Single Mothers. My husband works shift work. Those days he works, I'm all by myself. Fortunately, as much as I fight with my 12-year-old to get him out of the house in the morning, he is very helpful around the house (hence my posting about washing dishes). We are very self-sufficient.

But, when my husband is home I'm already in a rhythm of my own and, because of his impeccable timing gene (which my 6-month-old seems to have inherited), my husband lands smack dab in the middle and is on his own schedule. I almost feel like he's being left behind in that respect. He sees how we get along when he's not there and that the world keeps going on. I love that he works so hard for us and is taking on extra shifts to help pay off the car we just bought, but I also wonder if in some ways he feels left out. Hmmmm.

Anyway, there are issues like this that stress our marriages and relationships as well. Stress doesn't necessarily have to come in the form of a jam packed schedule. It can come from our own priorities...and just from the natural ebb and flow of life.

If you haven't done it, yet, I would highly recommend taking the Love and Respect marriage conference, and seeing the movie Fireproof. Don't look at it as a lesson for your husbands, see it as a lesson for yourself.

And, in the midst of all this, don't forget to pray and read the Bible and seek God's wisdom and guidance in all these things.