a hope injection

This is a phrase I’ve learned from a wonderful friend.  She has a beautiful gift of turning a horrible circumstance, nasty day, down-n-out moment into something positive. This friend’s life is a continual hope injection to me.  I’m so thankful for her.

A little over a year ago I called her up sobbing like a baby.  Gut wrenching, puffy eyed, snot dripping all out fit!  (I warned you I’d be transparent, I don’t pretend well)  Now to give me some credit, I’m tenderhearted and that’s a good thing.  However, I don’t have frequent tantrums and fits.  Really, I don’t.  Drama doesn’t suit me well and I don’t put up with it very well either. 

On that day I had gotten some news that I would have chosen otherwise.  After crying and sobbing out to God, I called my earthly lifeline.  I needed a hope injection.  When you are single, there is no one to ask you how your day went on a daily basis.  There is no one to pray with you regularly.  I’m not asking for sympathy, just trying to express single life.  The other horrible reality is, I’ve been in a marriage where this exact thing was true.  Days and weeks gone by where you didn’t get asked how your day was or pray with you on a regular basis.  OUCH!  Being single there is no daily expectation of this.  Being married, you would tend to have these expectations.  I must add that I wasn’t perfect by any means in my previous marriage.  I had faults, selfish motives and failed way too often as well.  My point is our expectations of others and how quick we overlook our own responsibilities. 

This same wonderful, awesome friend once said that she began a habit of asking her husband at the end of the day, “How could I have served you better today?” WOWSERS, I just love that!  Isn’t that what marriage is all about?  Serving the other one above your self.  I read in a study guide for singles by FMU (Future Marriage University) that a marriage proposal really is (or should be), “Do you accept what I have to offer?” 

Instead of the ever so common phrase, “Always kiss me goodnight,” a different phrase I will choose to have on the “wall” of my heart someday when I’m married is “How could I have served you better today?”  Kissing someone goodnight can still hide a lot.  Having someone always kiss you goodnight, is receiving something.  Asking someone how you could have served them better changes things up a bit.  At least for me it would.  I recently read a great book by Gary Thomas called, Sacred Marriage: What if God Designed Marriage to Make us Holy More Than to Make us Happy?  It changed my life.  It changed the reason why I long to be married again someday.  

During this time of singleness I’m busy studying for the biggest test of my life, marriage.  I don’t want to wait around for the test and not know the material so to speak.  What you invest in something is what you get out of it.  When this life is all over, we answer for ourselves, no one else.  That is huge.  It is reassuring on some level.  On another level, it’s overwhelming.  How many times have I been guilty of my own agenda?  The answer is embarrassing.  

Single or married, I would like to challenge you & myself to ask God, “How could I have served you better today?”  I would like to challenge you to be a hope injection to someone else today.