The e-Giving Guide for Every Church by Rogers Richard;Christopher J. Clif;

Author:Rogers, Richard;Christopher, J. Clif;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Published: 2016-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

1. Used with permission.

Getting Your Legs Under You

Have you heard of “marrying up”? It’s when you find a spouse who far exceeds your capacity. I did that. I married my best friend from college, and now we’ve spent over half of our lives together. Jennifer is beautiful, smart, hilarious, gifted, and generous. She’s an incredible life partner, a great mom to six children, and a successful businesswoman. She loves God and loves people. She happens to be very strong minded and strong willed; she is a competitor. She loves sports and will play just about any game. While we were dating in college she asked me to play tennis with her . . . once. I started out playing hard, and she got frustrated and mad. I was trying to win her heart, not a tennis match, so I started volleying easier balls back to her. It made her furious, and I was accused of patronizing her! Pretty sure it was our first fight, and it was definitely the only time we played tennis.

Six months into our marriage, and after a half day of ski school on day one of her first ski trip, it was time to venture out together. I was giddy but nervous. We got onto our first ski lift together, and I couldn’t wait for her to experience a new adventure. But I also kept thinking tennis, tennis, tennis. I can’t remember if we got tangled up exiting the very first lift, but I can tell you it happened at some point during the day. There were several falls and a few angry tears, but she just kept getting up and I kept encouraging her. I distinctly remember the moment I thought she was done: It was late in the day, and our legs were tired. She was standing straight up and gliding along a narrow path leading to the next downhill run. Snow was falling, and the trail was full of people moving around us in tight spaces. Suddenly her feet got ahead of her, and she went down on her backside and lay back flat on the backs of her skis, knees still up, as if she were doing a sit-up. She was exhausted and didn’t think she could move. The longer she lay there, the madder she got. I’m sure it was just a few moments but seemed longer. When she’d had enough of the snow landing on her cold face and people swerving to miss us, we got her back to her feet and found our way to the lodge. Exhausted and with a few new bruises, we took off our boots and outer layers of wet ski gear and began to wiggle cold fingers and toes. After some hot chocolate and exchanging highlights from the day, she admitted to looking forward to day two. We did it . . . together!

A green ski slope doesn’t mean it’s small. A green slope may be extremely long and take a long time to complete if enjoyed at a casual or deliberate pace.

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