I made my way through the quiet house, turning out all the lights; shutting everything down for the night. And then I saw it. Oh yes. It pierced the silence like a shrill scream.
The trash can. The full, overflowing trash can.
I have a love/hate relationship with trash can. I love that it holds all the unwanted junk from the day and the items that we no longer need or have chosen to depart with. I hate the fact that it fills up so quickly and that it won’t take itself out. No, it relies on its human handlers to do the dirty job.
So, when I saw the overflowing trash can right before I was ready to climb in my bed and dream the night away, you can believe nice thoughts were not running through my head.
No. Not nice at all.
See, not 2 hours ago I had gently asked my sweet husband if he could take out the trash and roll the big trash cans down to get ready for the next day’s trash pickup. (My boys that would normally do this were on a visit with their Grammy). Of course, he said he would.
Now, upon hearing the trash can screaming my name prior to going to bed, I pushed the frustration down, crawled into bed and gently asked my sweet husband if before he left in the morning he could take the trash out and roll our bins down to the curb. And just as sweetly, he said no problem.
I thought nothing else of it.
Until…
I was sitting down having my morning quiet time (in a not so quiet house mind you)… when the phone rings.
“I’m so sorry”, he says, “I forgot to take out the trash and roll the bins down.” UGH.
REALLY?
I could feel the frustrations begin to build.
Never mind that as soon as he had gotten home from work the night before, he worked outside in the over 100 degree heat cleaning out our car to get ready to sell.
Or that he went and got dinner for us because I didn’t feel like cooking that night.
Or that he went back outside after dinner to do some work in the yard.
Or even that he got up early that morning to walk with me before getting ready for work.
Never mind that I had JUST finished reading in Proverbs the profound words of “…the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping”. Proverbs 19:13b
REALLY?
So, I pushed down every wrong thought I had at the moment, asked a quick prayer of forgiveness for my initial reaction, and replied, “no worries honey, I got it.”
I could almost hear the sigh of relief in his voice that he didn’t get reamed over the coals.
And then, I said a quick prayer of thanks for the sweet man that I am blessed to call my husband.
Linking up today with Time-Warp Wife
Oh my. My kitchen faucet is broken and drips all of the time, usually into a bowl of water that someone puts there. I can’t stand the sound. What a great word picture – and Proverb. Hope you have a wonderful week!
Yes – it is an annoying sound huh! That is NOT the sound I want my husband to think of when he thinks of me!
WOw, great post!!
Thanks Mae! Good to see you here!
Very good Chelsey! Thank you for reminding me to overlook one thing my husband may not do for all the things he does do!
Sometimes it can be hard to let things “go”, but oftentimes it is SO worth it!
Great post! It is so easy to sympathize with your frustration and annoyance and I am so happy for you and with you when you overcome it! Thank you for sharing this personal story – it is great encouragement and inspiration for me.
Adele
Thank you Adele. It is a blessing to me when God uses me to inspire others.
This is a great story about the good that comes when we choose to zip our lips and obey God’s word. Thanks for sharing this important post. God bless you!
Yes… zipping our lips – that s hard sometimes to do, but SO important at times!!! Great to see you here Angel!
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GREAT post! And so what I needed to hear tonight after having been quite contentious myself this evening.
I think I need to print my OWN words off and put them on my bathroom mirror, so I can remember this everyday!
Haha, I’m the same way! I go back and read old posts about living the Christian life, etc, and think, “Boy, I should read my *own* blog more often! I have some good things to say–I just don’t seem to practice what I preach enough!”
Thanks for the reminders in this post. I can certainly be quite contentious, especially as my energy (and mood) wanes along with the day….
Thank you for this post I am often guilty of being a drip, thank you for showing the right way to deal with this.
Wonderful post, Chelsey! A message we all need to hear from time to time.
I really enjoyed your post, Chelsey. I have to continually remind myself to hold my tongue because it’s so easy for me to go on a rant when things aren’t done my way. My tongue is often not very happy with me.
I really liked this post! It’s so easy to let little things annoy us and cause us to forget a lot of the good things.
Found and following your blog through a link on Thriving Thursday at Serving Joyfully.
I had a spectacular fail in this category today. I’ve already asked forgivness from my family and am now working on forgiving myself.
LuAnn Braley recently shared..Proverbs 31: 26 – 27
So glad you are here LuAnn … Yeah I find myself asking for forgiveness far to often!!!
I see this is old, but I came across it from the pinterest board and wanted to comment. Thank you for being so open and honest here! So many Christian bloggers I see only blog about their victory moments, with no mention of the bad ones…I have so many of those not-so-pretty moments….
“I could almost hear the sigh of relief in his voice that he didn’t get reamed over the coals.”
This is my husband a lot. And the reason is because he does get raked over the coals too often
Thanks for sharing. It’s encouraging to know others struggle with this, and yet it helps inspire me to do better at the same time.
Crystal @ Serving Joyfully recently shared..Thriving Thursday (& An Announcement)
Thanks Crystal… Yeah, I have lots of those ugly moments!!! I struggle too with do people really want to hear all those raw moments… But I think that there is more of a sense of community when we can be real with one another!!