Mark: Last weekend Jill and I were spent from the National Hearts at Home conference in Peoria where nearly 4100 moms got their batteries recharged.
Jill: It’s a big weekend for our family and the older we get the more it saps our energy. Needless to say there was no Marriage Monday last Monday.
Mark: This weekend we worked on our kitchen remodel. Yes I started it in October–tearing out walls, making a mess, building a new kitchen island, painting the cabinets, installing “new to us” countertops, putting in a new sink…the list goes on.
Jill: Mark spent most of this weekend putting in the new backsplash. When you remodel for other people Monday through Friday, you can only work on your remodel nights and weekends. And when we travel a good number of weekends for speaking, it means big projects like a kitchen remodel takes longer than usual.
Mark: So when we started talking about today’s Marriage Monday, that brought us to the topic of grace. Years ago, Jill and I started talking about the importance of giving each other “grace space” in marriage. “Grace Space” is simply allowing one another to be human. To make mistakes or experience human weakness without being raked over the coals by one another.
Jill: We’ve been pretty wiped from two very big weekends. Without grace being lived out with kindness and patience, conflict is almost inevitable. In the past, it most definitely would have happened…but God is growing each of us up.
Mark: We haven’t experienced conflict these past two very full weekends. Instead we’ve both worked hard to extend grace and to serve one another.
Jill: Last weekend Mark served me by helping at the Hearts at Home conference. This weekend I served Mark by running to the home improvement store while he was working on the kitchen.
Mark: May is the month of working in the yard, planting gardens, end of the school year activities, graduations, sports practices, and transitioning into summer. It’s a season where conflict could be inevitable.
Jill: Unless you play the grace card.
What about you? Where do you need to give grace to your spouse? Where can kindness, patience, and serving change the tone of how you interact with one another?
