A Big Ol‘ Plate Full o’ Nothin’ (In Honor of my husband on Valentine’s Day)

My husband is a giant among men. He really deserves more credit than he gets for being married to me for going-on-22 years. Let me explain. We have a teenaged son. If you have one of these then you know what our schedule is like without me having to explain. Tuesday nights are a doozy. We run home from school to meet the math tutor. I throw dinner together while they meet, and Wil and I choke it down before the trumpet teacher arrives. Once the music begins I’m dashing out the door to lead Bible study. Somewhere in that melee my husband arrives home. I usually shout instructions at him over my shoulder about what’s for dinner and where it is (oven or refrigerator) as I air-kiss him goodbye. The poor guy.

On a recent Tuesday, we went through the typical drill, except that my husband was obviously a little pre-occupied. Since he had decided to take a run before eating dinner I shoved his crisp Mexican chicken salad into the fridge and left the quesadillas by the stove to be warmed up when he was ready, and then I dashed out the door. When I got home and went to the fridge for a snack, there sat his lovely green salad still tightly wrapped and looking as inviting as ever.

“You didn’t eat your salad!” I exclaimed.
Completely chagrined, my husband turned to me slowly and said, “I forgot”.
“What did you eat?” I demanded.
“Those…quesadillas…?” He asked as if looking for my approval.

Now you must understand that the “quesadillas” were nothing more than a pile of cheese melted between two plain old tortilla wraps. And there were four little triangles left – meant to accompany his salad, not to be the main course – but he was grateful for them. This should tell you something about what he’s come to expect at dinner time, which is why I nominate him for the husband-of-the-year award, but my point is this: when was the last time you were grateful for a big ol’ plate full o’ nothin’?
Ouch.

In the course our Christian lives have taken, we have learned to pray for all our needs…and then some. Paul says that we are to present our requests to God, and we’ve gotten really good at that, but we’re not so good at accepting the answer when it winds up being a big ol’ plate full o’ nothin’. I think my husband is the model of gratitude, not because he’s come to expect so little, but because he was simply content with what was provided to him – grateful that it was waiting and that it satisfied his need. How simple. How remarkable. How wonderful.