Ordinary things have a way of showing us our sin. In our family, Papa Bear and I do pretty well with the "big things." We're totally out of our element in that, we know it, and we immediately turn to our heavenly father, knowing He's got what we don't. We know our need! Granted we've got a lot to learn in all areas, even the "bigger thing," but the point is, it's in the smaller, every day, ordinary mundane stuff that we feel sufficient. I mean, laundry. Really. Is that God's business? Do I really need his help to make my bed? Butter my bread? Open the closet door? Flush? Load the kids in the car? (Ok, maybe on that one...) See my point?
Well, this new TV adventure has been pretty typical in this respect. It's "just a TV" - does God really care where we put it? Or whether we keep the train table? Or put in on this table or that stand or dust behind the shelves we moved to make room for it? (again, etc, you get my point). And why is it so "hard" to talk to my beloved about my not liking it here, or preferring the love seat there, or wishing the dust would just settle for a day before we make more changes? And so on.
Rewind to 16 years ago when we got married. We knew then we had a lot to learn to communicate well. Fast forward a couple years - our patterns were entrenched and we knew now from experience we both like to avoid conflict. We are pretty "agreeable" people - surely we can figure these things out - I'll just do it his way (most of the time). But what to do when you really don't like something? That's when the sin comes out. For both of us. One or the other of us will bottle it up rather than say something. Then, often in regard to something unrelated, one or the other of us will make a comment, or even get upset. Worse, we'll generalize and say "you always..." or "I never..." And it's the little things where it happens the most. The mundane, unimportant things. When we feel sufficient but honestly we're not. We're just as needy if not more so when we're talking about where to put the TV or what to have for dinner or whose going to deal with the kid that just got out of bed, again.
