Husband Encouragement Challenge

I love the Father's Day pics, Sarah! Thanks for sharing the joy that you celebrated yesterday with Eli having a wonderful father!

This weekend I tried several things to encourage my husband.
1. Ask if he wants to play games on nights there is nothing acceptable on TV. He loves any type of game -- really gets into the challenge or competition. For me, the competition adds stress, so I try to avoid. In a compromise, I'll play the game, but someone can keep my score for me if they want -- I'll play for fun, but not for competition. This worked fine -- I found that playing was the important aspect for him, the "winner" was only a small piece of his experience. Also, if in doubt of who is winner since we weren't keeping score, we determined to flip a coin.
2. On Sunday I played the piano for worship since organist took the day off. This time I tried not to make a big deal about the hymns or my being nervous (I will give the music unto the Lord, but shake like a leaf in a thunderstorm). Rather than ask for hymns to be printed or copied for me, I used the accompanist edition and flipped pages to find the hymns as needed. I practiced at times he was not in the church or at home (which can be very tricky because the manse is right next to the church and he goes back and forth frequently during the day). Keying down my involvement seemed to help him stay focused on prepping the service.
3. For Father's Day I fixed Sauerbraten -- a dish that he comments about frequently. He loved it!
4. On Sunday after worship I was -- well, fiesty inside... I didn't feel like being very nice to anyone. Instead of being my usual pain-in-the-neck when I feel that way, I prayed frequently and stepped outside or downstairs as needed to give myself some breather space. It turned out, we had an enjoyable day and took a long walk in the evening topped off an ice cream at Dairy Sweet.

At times it is still hard to be positive, but I love the scriptures for today that remind me joy comes from being close to God. That joy then shows forth (then I think of the song, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine...)