Day 146: Hot Chocolate by the Kindle Fire

Yesterday I told you to wait in the bathroom for a few minutes while I prepared a surprise for you. (I’m not sure why I chose the bathroom. I guess you could’ve waited in the bedroom.) While you were in there, I made a trail of rose petals from the bathroom door, down the stairs, and out the front door to our patio table. On the table I set two cups of hot chocolate and our Kindle Fire, which was running a fireplace app. I then knocked on the bathroom door and told you to follow the rose petals to your surprise. You did and found me standing by the table inviting you to have hot chocolate with me. You accepted the invite (phew!), so we sat under the stars sipping hot chocolate and admiring how real the fire looked. At one point, you felt the Kindle’s screen and said, “Wow! The fire’s even warm!” I laughed and told you that the Kindle’s always warm when it’s on.

Maybe I should make some saccharine comment at this point about how you kindle the fire in my heart. Nah, I’ll refrain . . .

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Day 87: Morning Coffee and Hot Chocolate

When I took our oldest to the store on Friday, she wanted to buy you something special, but I had to tell her no. So on the morning of Christmas Eve, I woke up our older daughters and asked them if they wanted to do something special for you. Both of them shot up in bed with a huge smile and said, “Yes!” We went downstairs and prepared some coffee and hot chocolate for you. Then I cut out a heart from red construction paper and the girls and I wrote you a Christmas note on it. We put everything on a plate and took it upstairs, woke you up, and gave it to you.

After we were done, I took the dishes to the kitchen. On the way there, I dropped one of the larger cups and one of the smaller cups. They shattered on the ground. Good thing these cups didn’t have sentimental value. The larger one was only a cup we got when we were first married and use only for special occasions and the smaller one was only a cup in a pair of special cups we got for our daughters. That was a close one! [I thought you knew not to let me carry anything breakable. Will you ever learn? 😉 (Seriously, though, I’m so sorry about the cups. I feel terrible!)]

Day 68: Building Our Marriage in Vain

In anticipation of Christmas, I took us out last night to look at Christmas lights. We drove around for about an hour, but saw nothing spectacular. It was a blast, though. When we got home, I made hot chocolate for everyone. So went my 68th act of love.

On another note, here’s a confession: since I started this blog, I’ve taken our marriage down the wrong path. That is, in order to focus on 365 Acts of Love, I’ve spent less time focusing on God. That’s right—I’ve absolutely neglected my relationship with God for the sake of this blog.

Doing so undermines this blog’s purpose, which is to build a successful marriage by being the right kind of husband. How do I figure that? Well, anything that is not built for the Lord and his glory—whether a business, a life, a marriage, or a blog—is built in vain. And nothing built in vain is successful. So, if I finish 365 Acts of Love, but take the focus of our marriage off of God in the process, I’ll consider 365 a failure. Furthermore, if at the end of our life together we’ve developed a fine marriage, but one that’s not based on proclaiming God’s greatness, we’ll have developed our marriage in vain.

In light of this, I hereby commit to putting God before this blog. If I cannot write a given post without neglecting my time spent praying, reading the Scriptures, and reflecting on our God, then I won’t write it. More than that, I commit to writing this blog with the aim of magnifying our Creator, by loving you for your own sake and for the sake of our relationship; and primarily, by loving you for the sake of God’s glory. Then perhaps 365 Acts of Love will not be built in vain. And I hope, neither will our marriage.

Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain (Ps. 127:1).