Daily Devotional for June 3, 2021

Carl and Becky are two of my all-time favorite people.  That’s because they both have a sense of humor as bad as mine.

Yesterday, they had come to the church office because Carl needed to give Melissa some information for the organ music being played on Sunday and Becky was the volunteer staff babysitter.

When I walked through the reception area, the phone began to ring.  Becky hurried out of the breakroom to answer the phone and I said, “Becky, how are you doing?”  She smiled and said, “Suffering from spousal abuse.  How are you?”  I said, “Me too!”

Then, after Becky answered the phone, we compared notes and concluded our spouses don’t know how good they’ve got it.  It’s up to us to make sure they do.

So, for my part, tonight when I get home from work, I am going to announce to Shannon that she is incredibly blessed to be married to me and she needs to be more appreciative.  I expect she will accept my observation with a contrite heart and become much more appreciative.  It will be a very productive conversation that will benefit our marriage.  I am really looking forward to our time of sharing.

But now that I’ve had a minute to think about it, I wonder if Shannon has any complaints about me?  Am I the attentive, loving, intelligent, caring, devastatingly handsome husband that I think I am?  Have I been looking so hard at Shannon’s flaws, that I do not see my own?

Jesus said, “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”  (Matthew 7:3-5)

For those of us that are blessed enough to be in a marriage where our spouse hasn’t tried to murder us to collect the insurance money, we need to admit that none of us is as good a spouse as we should be.  Each of us can make improvements.

Today, I am going to talk to Becky about both of us needing to pull the logs out of our own eyes before we start talking about Carl and Shannon’s shortcomings.

Having said that, I still expect that once we have pulled the logs our of our own eyes, we will still come to the same conclusion that Carl and Shannon don’t know how good they’ve got it and should be more appreciative.

Prayer:  Dear Gracious Heavenly God, please forgive my never-ending hypocrisy.  Remove my self-imposed blinders that make me see myself as somehow better than others.  Give me humility.  In Jesus’ name I pray.  Amen.

Just for the record, Carl was in the breakroom when Becky and I started comparing notes.  He came to a vastly different conclusion.  I think Shannon would too.

I pray your day is filled with joy and laughter.
Tom Robbins