The Same Team

Welcome! Be sure to enter the giveaway for doTERRA essential oils!

Tell me if you've ever had this happen to you. Your husband arrives home from work completely exhausted and starts telling you what a rough day he's had. Do you sympathetically scratch his back and say,"Oh I'm so sorry, honey, why don't you go lie down for awhile? I'll try to keep the kids quiet so you can rest." Or is your response more like,"Well at least you weren't stuck here with the kids all day and you got to have adult conversation! These kids are just as much yours as they are mine, so suck it up until bedtime!"

Guess how I usually respond? If you guessed the first response, as much as I hate to admit it, you'd be wrong.

Recently, I've realized how competitive I am with my husband. I treat our lives, and our different roles in our family as a competition. I'm not sure how long I've done this, but it comes so naturally to me, that it's hard to stop. But I absolutely must stop. The Bible says married couples should complement each other, not compete with each other over who has the harder job!

My job is is to help, respect, love, and submit to Erik. It is not my job to tell him when it's ok for him to be tired, or to convict him of sin. Besides, can you imagine if the roles were reversed, and he was doing that to me? I would be miserable!

Life gets hard. I think it's safe to say that I'm in a difficult season of life right now, with seemingly millions of children running around(or, you know, four.) I feel isolated, overwhelmed, and frazzled quite a bit. But you know who probably understands how I feel better than anyone? My husband! How silly of me to try to compete with him, when he knows what I'm going through better than anyone else. Yes we have different jobs, and no he's not home all day every day, but he's still taking care of and providing for his family.

The bottom line is that I must start remembering that Erik and I are on the same team. We have different roles, but when it's all said and done we both want the same things for our family.

"The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down." Proverbs 14:1

Linked to A Wise Woman Builds Her Home & Yes they're all mine

I'm Thankful for..

My husband. Yes, it's (hopefully) an obvious thing to be thankful for, but sometimes you just need to say it out loud. Or write it in a blog post, as the case may be. :)

Erik and I have been married for a little over six years, and in those six years we've survived unemployment, brought four little ones into the world, and made some pretty terrible financial decisions. We've had to learn a lot of lessons the hard way, and it's not always been easy for us. But we've learned to cling to each other, and more importantly we've learned to cling to the Lord. I am so blessed to be married to a man who loves God more than anyone, or anything else. And I can honestly say that, because that has not always been the case. But that's a different story for a different day.

Erik's heart is to take care of his family and lead us well.  He wants our marriage to be focused on God as much as I do, and has even set an alarm on my phone to remind me it's time to pray together. He wants to teach Jack and Max to be providers and protectors. He very much desires for them to grow into godly men. And he adores Anna and Lily, and wants to protect them. I'm not sure anything melts my heart more than watching my husband with our children.


He's humble. Seriously he's one of the most humble people I've ever met. He's also quick to forgive the somewhat stubborn woman he's married to.

He's also hilarious, and we have so much fun together.

We don't have marriage all figured out, and we are far(very far!) from perfect. We still have arguments, and hurt feelings just like anyone else. But we are learning. And I'm so very thankful for the awesome man, the Lord has blessed me with!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!