What was she thinking marrying me???

What was she thinking marrying me??? Married men, do you ever wonder?

When I was in Bible college, I heard a lot (and I mean A LOT) of sermons, and being that it was a conservative Bible college, the speakers were always male.  It seemed every pastor would get up and talk about how lucky he was that his wife had married him, how beautiful she was, and how she was by far the “better half.”  Well, as a college age kid I thought of myself pretty highly and felt that I would have quite a bit to offer any women who would marry me.  Heck, she’d be lucky to marry me, I’m a catch. 

After seven plus years of marriage, I’ve learned a thing or two; I AM the lucky one—by far!

Ever heard the phrase “marrying up?” The idea is that a man (or woman) is able to marry someone from a higher cultural status than his own.   It would be like the shift manager at the local fast food joint being wedded to a wealthy heiress.  Ok, a bit drastic of an example, but you get my point.  In my marriage, I’m the one who married up! What was she thinking?!

Have you ever seen Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts? (Ok, in fairness I’ve only seen Eat, because I got bored of the movie and stopped watching)  At the beginning of the movie Julia Robert’s character is driving home from a party with her husband and he proceeds to tell her about his new career idea, something about going back to school or something; she is less than pleased. If you’ve seen the movie, you know the rest of the story— she dumps him and then goes on a soul-searching adventure in which she eats, prays, and eventually falls in love (or so my wife told me). 

For some reason that husband character sticks out in my mind; he was just a loser.  The movie makes it pretty obvious, he was dead weight and she was wise to let him go; he was the symbol of her old life, of her not being herself—he was a microcosm of all that was wrong with her life. 

What’s the point you say? Well, I’m that guy—just without as nice of a car! I mean, look at me, I have a ministry degree that is worthless in the job market. Have I learned my lesson? Nope, I’m currently working on another ministry degree (a Masters of Divinity).  If that wasn’t bad enough, I haven’t had a job that actually required a college-degree for employment in probably six years and I currently work in warehouse; that’s right—a warehouse.   I wear torn jeans and t-shirt to work, and then I come home and read theology books.

Also just like the movie, my wife is the one bringing in the bacon.  Back in college, somehow I fooled her into thinking I was worthwhile and she followed me to my school.  It took the last ten years of her life to make up for that bad decision! She finally graduated last year as a Registered Nurse (read more about that here).  Just think, if she hadn’t been foolish enough to pursue me, she would have graduated a long time ago!

This is all to say, just like all those pastors used to say (and probably still do), my wife is by far the better half!  Without reservation, I definitely married up (and maybe someday I will rise to her brilliance).  My Valentine’s Day reflection (a day late) is this—thank God for women who will give losers like me a chance!  (I hope to someday prove she made a good choice! J)

Happy Valentine’s Day – I love you!