Dan walked in and immediately knew his wife Jessica was not happy. She didn't say hi. She folded the kids' laundry with a vigor that startled him.
"Dinner's in the fridge." She shot at him without looking up.
"Wait, what?" and as he watched her move toward the bedroom he asked, "Are you okay baby?"
"Yes! Why wouldn't I be?"
Dan modified his question, "Are WE okay?"
After hesitating for a minute she shot back, "Sure."
"Wait, wait, wait. You better not be mad after all the time and effort I put into our date on Friday! It is NOT fair if after doing all that, you still say I don't do anything for you."
She leaned forward toward him and shot her hand to the rest of the laundry on the ground as she widened her eyes to signal it was obvious.
"Oh yeah," Dan remembered that was her biggest complaint she had shared on Friday, before she was able to warm up to him.
She took a deep breath as she gathered her patience. Then she said, still looking at the ground, "I love that you did all that nice stuff for me on Friday. I felt very loved. But when I came home today and saw all your clothes right here on top of the pile with the rest of the kids, when I HAD TOLD YOU to put it in the washer... RIGHT THERE, it makes me think you weren't really listening to anything I said! You were just showing off on Friday. You were just in it for the kisses and food and... sex."
Dan swallowed and nodded. He didn't know the right answer. He thought he had been the hero for romancing her so well with that date on Friday, but putting the laundry in the washer so that it was ready to be put in dryer when she got home was what she had told him a dozen times to do. And she had been near a breaking point on Friday, and felt like she had finally been heard. Until she came home today and nothing had changed.
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I think worship on Sunday is beautiful and great. But I feel like if after church we go back to not hanging out with the uncool people, wasting time on sooty TV, and spending our money on blingy clothes, I'm not sure we should feel we're still totally cool with God.
Raw Spoon, 1-23-23
