Altrogge Family

This week I have found great encouragement in my husband's beautiful song, "I Will Cast My Cares" from In A Little While, as I have been tired and had a headache. I have memories of hearing him write this song in our living room and now am reminded of the truth in I Peter 5:7, "Casting all your cares on Him, because He cares for you," as I hear the finished product.

Corny, and yet so very funny...click here.

For the second year in a row, Stephen and I went to Gamble Christmas Tree Farm, where you take a hayride to the top of the hill, choose a tree for the boy with the chainsaw to cut down and pay for it in the barn at the bottom of the hill. As we were traipsing through the snow, mud and puddles, our eyes were on the lookout for that "perfect tree" from a storybook. We picked one out only to find that the backside, which had been nestled against another tree, was completely dead. The front had looked nicely filled out. Smooth move. The kind workers let us choose another.

Who would have thought it was possible to over-think picking out a Christmas tree. It started to seem as though every tree was "too tall, too wide or too bare." Finally we picked it out. It is a beauty, perfect for our home. If I could use one word to describe the evergreen, it would be "wide." It is certainly tall, but its width makes it look short and stubby. Let's just say I have to think before I run down the stairs and turn the corner, because it protrudes far from the wall. I have a bad feeling about this.

After Stephen and I had our fun, we went to pick-up our baby girl, who is too little to go out in the cold (but we are excited for the day when she will join us). The fun was just starting. She was wide awake and cooing during the decorating and singing of carols with Bing Crosby. Poor Stephen was subjected to my insisting that Christmas music be playing all day long. Is not that what you do on Christmas-tree-decorating-day?

He makes life fun for me. Whenever I sing along, in all seriousness, with Amy Grant, he chimes in making up words and singing off-tune. I act as though I do not like it, but as with all his jokes, it does not take me long to cave and crack-up.

We ended the evening by watching a Christmas movie together. I am pleased to say, that this morning when I woke up, the tree was still standing.

Scripture instructs women to be kind (Titus 2:5). Whenever I read that statement, I had a vague understanding of its definition. I know kindness is a good thing, pleases the Lord and is a fruit of the Spirit working in believers, but what does it look like practically, to be kind?

I have recently been reading a book entitled Spurgeon: A New Biography, by Arnold Dallimore. While Charles Spurgeon's pursuit of the Lord is inspiring, I have also been encouraged by Susannah Spurgeon's example.

When Charles was married at age twenty-two, he was pastoring a church of over two-thousand people, visiting distant churches to preach and writing his first book. I thought our life was busy. Theirs was in a whole other realm of busy. With Charles speaking, traveling and writing so often, I am sure he often returned home to his wife exhausted. He was probably mentally drained from all the preparation for sermons and writing. He was probably physically drained from speaking and traveling. Dallimore said,

"He frequently returned home utterly exhausted, but invariably found loving arms awaiting him amid every possible kindness and comfort."

When Stephen comes home from work, a meeting at church, reaching out to an unsaved friend or spending time with the guys, he is often tired, mentally and physically (always loving and sensitive to me, though). Here is a perfect opportunity for me to welcome him in the door with loving arms and every possible kindness and comfort.

I often give into the temptation to withhold kindness. I must recognize why I am not extending kindness. Am I bitter that he had meetings at Starbucks or does not have energy to do something with me. Am I angry that he spent time with the guys or playing video games? I must fly to the Savior in these moments, to repent of anything that causes me to withhold kindness from Stephen.

Please pray with me, that the Lord would help us grow in loving our husbands this way. If kindness were always "felt," then Scripture would not command wives to be kind to their husbands (Titus 2:5). I want to invariably, or consistently, extend loving arms and show tons of kindness toward Stephen. I want to repent of the sin that hinders me from being kind to my husband when he returns home. I want the same to be said of me, that was of Susannah Spurgeon.

One evening, before waking Charis up for her late night feeding, I decided it was a perfect opportuninty to clip her nails. She was asleep and would never have to know that I finally gave her nails a much needed trim. Her arms were limp and she would not fight my efforts. Now I know why I put it off for so long.