My wife Tammy has been gone for several days.\u00a0 In her absence, Marshall and I are doing\u00a0OK.\u00a0 We have cooked and cleaned a little, worked a little, and goofed off a litt . . . er . . . a lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Typically, while she is gone, there are certain things that just don’t get done.\u00a0 At least not until the day before her return.\u00a0 The laundry, the floors, the dishes, kitchen counter, and sink.\u00a0 We don’t exactly let them get horrible, but they are not quite up to the standards of a good housekeeper.\u00a0\u00a0 And the bed?\u00a0 Why make the bed when you are just going to get right back in it when evening rolls around.\u00a0 The bed almost never gets made until the morning of her arrival.\u00a0 Almost, except for today.<\/p>\n
Tammy is not expected back until tomorrow, but I made the bed today.\u00a0 I didn’t intend for it to happen.\u00a0 I just meant to pull up the sheet and blanket like always, but instead, I just kept going.\u00a0 Bedspread, throw pillows and all.<\/p>\n
Before I was married, I almost never made the bed.\u00a0 Over 27 years of marriage to Tammy has changed that.\u00a0 Granted, she is the one who makes the bed most days, but now, sometimes I do it.\u00a0 Some of you may say I have given in.\u00a0 That I have\u00a0lost my manhood\u00a0and taken up the “Yes dear,” mantra.\u00a0 Despite what you may say, today is proof that it is not true.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today I made the bed even though Tammy was not here.\u00a0 She wouldn’t know if I made it or not.\u00a0 She wouldn’t see it, or be with me when I yank it back open\u00a0and slide\u00a0in it tonight.\u00a0 She would never\u00a0know how neat it looked, but\u00a0I made it anyway.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And I think I know the reason.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I made the bed because\u00a0I love her.\u00a0 Because it’s\u00a0a thing that’s important to her.\u00a0\u00a0 And because today as I was pulling up the covers and throwing on the pillows, I thought of her.\u00a0 What was important to her was, in that moment, important to me. \u00a0And it felt right.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I believe God is often on Tammy’s side of the fence.\u00a0 No, I don’t think it’s important to him that I make the bed.\u00a0\u00a0 What I do believe is that\u00a0he loves us, that\u00a0he has made us in his own image and that he wants us to love him back.\u00a0 He wants us to love him, live with him and know him in such a way that what is important to him is important to us.\u00a0\u00a0 He wants\u00a0our relationship with him to grow to the point where we\u00a0live to please him, not because he’s watching, but because we love him.\u00a0\u00a0 Then, when no one is around\u00a0to see.\u00a0 When there is no one to praise us\u00a0for our good deeds, or shame us for our bad ones, we can still act in love and do what we ought to do.\u00a0 Not because we have to, but because it just feels right.<\/p>\n
1John 3:1 \u00b6 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. My wife Tammy has been gone for several days.\u00a0 In her absence, Marshall and I are doing\u00a0OK.\u00a0 We have cooked and cleaned a little, worked a little, and goofed off a litt . . . er . . . a lot.\u00a0 Typically, while she is gone, there are certain things that just don’t get done.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[115,114,116],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consider","category-misc","tag-bed","tag-love","tag-uprightness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1006,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions\/1006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u00a02 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
\n\u00a03 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.\u00a0 NKJV<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"