A Button for Your Thoughts

This morning, as we were getting ready for church, Bert approached me about an hour before we needed to leave and asked if I would have time to sew the button on his jacket. We still had an hour and all I needed to do in that time was shower, get dressed, do my hair and make-up, get the girls dressed, do their hair, brush teeth and gather all my things I needed for church that day (you all get the picture I'm sure). So, my response was basically, "I think so." Such a silly girl - what was I thinking. So, I set to my list and got going. After showering, dressing and putting on my make-up I started drying my hair. The girls came in and I started doing their hair. Before I knew it there were only 15 minutes left until we needed to leave, and being late is not an option for us. Without me saying a word, Bert shows me a spool of thread and asks if that will work for the jacket. I responded that it would be just fine and lo and behold, he starts mending his own button! I was too busy to watch over and make sure all was going well, or to really even think about it much. So, he sewed on the button, we girls had our hair done and the whole family was ready to go, and we went. I didn't even think about the button anymore. Later that day he told me of the change in thinking that he experienced this morning. Sometimes we get so locked into male/female or husband/wife roles that we don't really think beyond that. While he was starting to get a bit stressed that I wasn't going to have time to sew on the button (which, in all reality, I wasn't going to have time to do), he had the thought pop into his head, "Hmmmm, maybe you could sew on the button." So he thought about it and talked himself through it, realized he could do it, and he sewed on the button. And it wasn't hard, it was just more of a change in thinking. Sometimes it is hard to view a situation through a different perspective. I am almost too embarrassed to tell this story, but I think I will just because it goes right along with this idea of being able to make a change in the way we think. When Bert and I were married we received a gift certificate for a car detail at a downtown business. I had grown up on the hill of the city we live in and become accustomed to getting rides when I had to go downtown and back. Getting there wasn't bad, but it was a few miles away, and the walk back up the hill was not too fun. So, we were married and we moved into his duplex, which was located very close to downtown. A few weeks into our new married bliss I decided to get the car detailed. I called the business and they said I could bring the car right over. So I immediately called my mom to see if she would be able to meet me there and then take me home. She wasn't home, so then I tried Bert's mom and she wasn't home either. That was one of the greatest blessings that neither were home so that it wouldn't be quite so obvious to them what a silly girl I was. I quickly decided to just drop the car off and then shop in some of the nearby stores until the car was ready. When I left the car detail place and started to go to the first store, I quickly realized I was a block away from my new home ... I could handle walking a block to get back home. Now, before you all judge me, please realize that I had lived up on the hill for most of the prior 20 years of my life.... it really was just a mindset. I would never ask for someone to come and pick me up and take me home from a place two blocks away. I just hadn't made that change in my mind yet. It happened very quickly that day - it's hard to break some old habits. I have ALWAYS just been sooooooooo grateful that neither my mom nor my new mother-in-law were home to take those phone calls - thank heaven for small little interventions that keep us from appearing like total idiots!