Listen, Love, Repeat: Other-Centered Living in a Self-Centered World by Karen Ehman

Author:Karen Ehman [Ehman, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2016-11-14T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

Chipped Crock-Pots and Stained Carpets

LIVING A LIFE OF WELCOME

The ornaments of your house will be the guests who frequent it.

—AUTHOR UNKNOWN

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.

—ACTS 4:32

On the second Sunday of October during our senior year in college, my boyfriend popped the question and slipped a heart-shaped diamond ring on my finger. I was ecstatic. Not only was I looking forward to becoming Mrs. Todd Ehman, but I was also eagerly anticipating setting up our very first apartment, complete with all things decorative, domestic, and culinary. And of course the very first step was filling out the bridal registry at the local JC Penney department store.

Now, while I was giddy that Saturday morning as I dragged my new fiancé to the mall, he was less than thrilled. Oh, he tried to feign interest, but after about forty-five minutes of “Do you think we should pick the seafoam-green bathroom towels or do you prefer the pacific-blue shade instead?” he’d had it. He parked himself on the edge of a nearby display, completely exasperated, and finally uttered, “You know what? I really don’t have any preference about all of this. You decide.”

That admission might have upset other girls who longed for a picture-perfect day of planning with their soon-to-be husband, but being somewhat of a control freak, I was actually relieved. This gave me complete freedom to single-handedly choose the countless items I wanted for our tiny, 400-square-foot apartment in the woods that we would call our first home. And so choose I did.

Two muffin tins, one nonstick cookie sheet, six peach washcloths, and two ivory bath towels. A Crock-Pot. A crystal vase. Ivory lace fingertip guest towels for the bathroom. And on it went, seven pages’ worth of domestic bliss.

My vision of a quaint and charming little apartment was coming together beautifully. And my fiancé was rewarded for his patience with a trip to our favorite sandwich shop, T. E. Murch’s, to order a turkey and Swiss, heavy on the mayo, and sprinkled with alfalfa sprouts, just the way he likes it. All in all it was a good day, and remembering it invokes feelings of sweet nostalgia in my soul.

In reality, though, I wish I were able to travel back in time and reselect my household items, this time with two decades of perspective and a little more practicality. Here’s how it would all go down:

Instead of debating between the Crock-Pot with the light-peach hearts on it or the one with the country-blue ducks and geese (Hey! Don’t judge. It was the 1980s and peach hearts and country-blue ducks and geese were all the rage), instead I would choose black. And chip resistant. After all, the Crock-Pot would have to stand up to decades of beef stew for a crowd and overnight oatmeal for the half-dozen football players who stayed each Saturday during gridiron season. When the black Crock-Pot did chip, I could take a Sharpie marker and make it look new again.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.