Lost along the way

It's been 21 years since I graduated from high school and I don't remember much from the marriage class that Pastor String did for the seniors, but several years later, he did the same class for the adult Sunday school at church. One thing he said stuck out in my mind - always look nice for your husband when he comes home from work, he's had a long day and wants to feel special when he gets home.

I tried to do this for a while, but it's hard when you have little ones and you're trying to get dinner on the table in time. As the kids got older, I tried again, but not consistently ... life always got in the way. Somewhere along the way I just stopped caring what I looked like at the end of the day. I was keeping the house, for a few years taking care of two houses. I was tired, angry, apathetic ...

Well here I am now, just 1 month shy of 20 years of marriage - I think I got lost along the way. I lost sight of who I always wanted to be, a wife & mother. I'm not saying that I ever stopped loving my husband, my best friend, but I stopped making an effort to look nice for him. "Eh, he knows I've had just as hard a day as he had," I'd think.

Recently we had a long chat about all the things going on in our lives. It hit me like a brick upside the head that I wasn't making our life together any better by not caring. Our conversation was just what I needed to point me back to the path I needed to be on. He's my best friend and the love of my life - he's still madly in love with me after 20 years, even though I stopped caring about treating him like a king.

I decided that from now on, I am building into my before dinner routine "touch up hair & make-up" because he deserves to feel like I care enough to look nice for him!