The Benefit of Doing Things You Don't Want to Do

Of the many perks of having a husband (aside from the fact that he does most of our cleaning and loves to iron) is that sometimes it forces you to do things you otherwise wouldn't do--things you'd otherwise give up on.

Case in point: For the past few months, Michael and I have been attending a theology class at our church on Monday nights. The class had been billed as one to prepare you for church leadership and being better equipped to disciple people. I'm not a born leader by any stretch of the title, so I figured I could get all the help I needed. But when Michael and I showed up to the first meeting, I was disappointed when I discovered that what I would be learning about was something called "The Westminster Confession of Faith"...which was written in 1646. And since my husband is the aspiring historian around here and not me, well let's say that if I'd had it my way, I would have called it quits without a moment's hesitation.

One thing I've learned in my few short months of marriage is to try to curb my negativity. (Remember my Lenten goal?) So, even though I was ready to high-tail it out of the class, I made the conscious decision to not complain or tell Michael how I felt, but to wait and see his thoughts. (Of course, I really hoped that he would share my same conclusion as well and we'd be off the hook.) Not surprisingly, he didn't. He really enjoyed the class, so we went back the next week and bought the workbook. We were in.

But as the weeks have passed, my heart has changed. Today is our last night of the class. Though I don't get a kick out of trying to figure out what "this" means in the Bible (such as whether "day" in the Creation story is literally a 24-hour period of time, describes an era or is a metaphor; a real discussion we had), it forces me to look at these questions and hear highly intelligent people discuss them and share insights and vantage points that never would have crossed my mind. It makes me become more educated about my faith and Scripture in general, whereas before I've pushed those questions aside to focus on the things I consider truly more important. Things like, "God loves you. Jesus died for you. The Holy Spirit is at work. Redemption is happening, and Satan is going down."

Truly those are the lifeblood of what matters to me in regards to faith. But this class has opened my eyes to things that make those facts even more real, even more true. And what do you know, but I have my husband to thank for that. Another good lesson in learning to keep my mouth shut and trust his leadership to guide our relationship even in these very little things!

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