What matters most

My husband is big on projects--tackling a major cleaning job, reorganizing the garage, sorting through the junk in the attic, painting the house. As long as it doesn’t involve extreme carpentry or plumbing skills, he can usually handle it.

The problem is, when he comes up with a project, he usually--somewhere along the way--needs my help. Like this month he decided it was time to paint our bedroom. So off to the paint store we went, pillow sham in hand for color matching purposes, and bought the paint.

Next thing I knew, he’d gotten out the “moving men” (you know, those little orange disks you put underneath furniture so it slides across the carpet). I went downstairs to find most of my bedroom furniture in the den and couldn’t find my sock drawer for two days.

To make a laboriously long story short, last Friday and Saturday we painted the room, lemon-oiled the furniture, and finally got everything put back together on Sunday afternoon.

But all the while I was thinking, “If only we put as much effort into our marriage as we do with these projects, we’d have a pretty awesome relationship!” I’m reminded of something I read once in a book on time management, how we expend our energies on the urgent rather than on what’s important.

A hole in the roof is urgent. A leaking toilet is urgent. A dead car battery is urgent. Your boss leaning over your shoulder demanding that report is urgent.

Your marriage is important.

Think about it. Two years, five years, twenty years from now, what’s really going to matter?

Yes, do what you must to keep your home and job on track, but put your best energy where your heart is. Your marriage deserves your highest creativity, your greatest effort, your strongest commitment.

I think I need to go take my own advice. Catch you next month!