So yesterday morning I got out of bed and I was a little ticked. I have 6 week old puppies and I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep. It’s like having a newborn again. Me+No Sleep=Not a Happy Camper. My beloved husband can sleep through anything, and I mean ANYTHING. Basically, I’ve been taking care of the puppies mostly by myself since I’m home the majority of the time. I get power naps when possible so I’m not completely running everyone off with my crankiness.
Rewind to the night before, David and I had a disagreement about letting our adult dogs outside, and it sort of spilled into this morning when I got up at 4am. It’s the kind of thing that can get under your skin and you like to hold onto sometimes.
As I got up to let the dogs out and walked past the puppies, they began to whine and cry cause they saw their mom and their human mom. They were ready to eat! So I set off to get them some food and play with them for a short while hoping they would go back to sleep quickly so I could also. Fat chance! I have a potty box attached to their pen area and they are mostly good at using it, but every once in a while they potty inside the pen. This was one of those times. One of them decided to go poo in the pen. I went to go get a paper towel to pick it up and someone had used the last paper towel and had not replaced the roll! Ugh! So I went to get a new roll, opened it and leaned over the side to get the puppy’s little deposit. Maybe you can guess what happened next…I overreached, lost my balance, and the plastic pen collapsed under me. I can only imagine what I looked like! (It’s ok to laugh here. I most certainly would.) I was able to catch myself somewhat to protect the pups, but now I was really frustrated. As they were eating their food, I decided to relax for just a bit. As I went to sit down I noticed one of the pups had gotten past me and had left another deposit on my tile. Insert eye roll here. I cleaned that up, herded the puppies back into the pen, and sat down in my recliner. Over an hour after this episode of “Puppy Wars” began, they FINALLY settled down and went back to sleep, and I was still wide awake!
I said all that to give you an idea of what state of mind I was in. Notice no one came to my rescue. Everyone else was sleeping peacefully in their own beds, while I was in the middle of chaos. Even the puppy mama had gone back to sleep at this point.
Somewhere during all of this I walked by the coffee pot and noticed that David had gotten it ready to brew for today. He takes coffee with him almost every morning. The only exception is when he rides his Harley to work. I noticed that there wasn’t enough water in the reservoir to make his usual cup and at that moment I had a chance to get back at him. I mean all he had to do was get some filtered water and put it in there, but I SAW it y’all. I had an opportunity to serve or walk away. See he usually gets up just in time to push start and let it brew, and to add the water takes a little more time. It could be the difference between leaving on time or running late. I chose to serve and get it ready for him. I don’t always choose the right thing, but this morning I did.
As we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord this weekend, someone on my social media posted a picture. On it was a quote from Steve Bezner that said, “Sometimes I joke about what I’d do if I had one day left to live. Eat junk, go crazy, etc. Today it hit me: Jesus knew. And he washed feet.” That got my attention. The perfect Lamb of God washed feet right before he knew it was his time to die. He chose such a selfless act to teach one more lesson before he fulfilled prophecy and died a horrific death. I’ve known for a long time that washing feet back then was for the lowliest of servants, but it wasn’t until I read this quote the enormity of Jesus’ decision to wash the disciples feet. HE KNEW. He still washed feet. Here I am contemplating whether or not to fill up the water reservoir. That’s not even close to washing someone’s feet.
Romans 12:10 says “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;”.(NKJV) The Message Bible says practice playing second fiddle. As a musician that speaks volumes to me. Second fiddle means you back up the first fiddle. As second your job is literally to make them look and sound better. All the while they get the attention and applause. They would sound good by themselves, but with backup they really shine!
Are you willing to serve your spouse so truly as to allow them to be in the spotlight while you back them up? No one saw me fill up the reservoir. David didn’t even brew coffee in the end. You guessed it, he took the Harley. He didn’t even know I did it, but it would have helped him to get to work on time and look good in his boss’s eyes.
Did I add the water in vain? No. When I chose to serve David, I also chose to be obedient to God. Anytime we choose to live out the Word of God, we allow God to refine us that much more. That should be our heart’s desire, for God to make us more like Jesus. And Jesus washed feet.