I was putting the dishes away, scrubbing the kitchen counters, tidying up the house. I imagined the smile on Nathan’s face. How relaxed and thankful he would be when he came home. “The house looks great, hon.” His exact words, every time. Bursting with gratitude and love.
I smiled to myself, and told my toddler, “Daddy is going to be so happy.” In that moment, I felt a tug, a memory from my childhood. As if my mom were speaking those words over tiny little Marie. I choked on the thickness of the two worlds, standing in two kitchens. These two mothers, decades apart, cleaning their homes, waiting for their husbands to come home, a child in each kitchen watching.
I remembered the dysfunction of my parent’s marriage. The ups and the downs, both members with their faults, daily dealing deadly blows to their union. A marriage that the cleanest kitchen in the world couldn’t save for the lack of Christ, in the home that was crumbling all around.
There I stood in two kitchens. As a child, watching a marriage gasp for air, parched and dehydrated. Surrounded by a loveless desert, my mother fruitlessly sweeping at all the sand. As a woman, I continued, watering my marriage with continued prayer, service, honesty, sacrifice.
I can’t believe my luck, my joy, this blessing. That I get to happily put away dishes, knowing it’s not an exercise in futility. That this clean kitchen isn’t a façade for a broken home, but the cherry on top. This man loves me. We are in this, both of us, pouring into this beautiful life together.
But not just by washing dishes or wiping countertops. There are so many more ingredients to the nurturing of this marriage. Mutual respect, attention, affection. Apologies and forgiveness. Service and sacrifice. Prayer and prayer and prayer. And Christ. In the center of it Jesus, with His power and love and supernatural work in our lives.
I know it will be a fight. It will take constant care and love. Because I’m not just overcoming my family of origin. This world is a desert land, trying to scorch the life out of my marriage and family. With distractions and desires, sin and selfishness.
It won’t work without Him. It won’t work in my own power. Willing this marriage to work, to thrive. But with Him, oh, what a bloom. And what glory our little marriage could bring to my King.
Only with Jesus, could this little girl surrounded by desert sands, grow into woman with a new life, a marriage that blooms for His glory. Because the only way anything grows out of the cracks of dry desert land is with power of the Living Water.
“The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy”Isaiah 35:1-2a
Hi there! I’m Marie Osborne! A wife, mama, and blogger who loves Jesus & large non-fat lattes. I’m here in the trenches right beside you, sister. Candidly sharing my sinner’s journey through marriage, new motherhood, and beyond. Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagra
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