Page 9

If I ever meet your first husband, I’m going to tell him a thing or two!
Randy Brittain

While he finished speaking these words, it took me a moment to process the sentiment. Because he is my first, and only, husband.

I began to laugh, and responded, “ Oh, you would, wouldn’t you!”

His goal each day is to make me laugh.

Our lives are rich with this type of banter, and laughter. We believe these moments keep us young, somewhat sane, and create enjoyment in married life. Before my one and only dear man left the room, he looked at me with an accomplished grin and said, “I already made you laugh today.”

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The tender part, though, was his very sincere recognition that he has become a different husband in recent years. The simple gesture of taking that old man to task for the way he regarded me in a certain season, causes me to thank God for this new man.

He’s not alone, my dear man. I’m not the same woman he married 35 years ago. Thank God, literally, He never leaves us as we are, but continuously does His molding and shaping work in us.

We’re a stubborn lot, the Milford/Brittain clan. As a subset, he and I did not easily or quietly yield to the Potter’s Hands. I can’t say that I believe God desired to wreck us to recreate and shape us into useful vessels. I tend to think we quite successfully and willfully crashed ourselves upon the stones of cultural norms, even Christian cultural norms.

Yet in our most broken moments, The Potter reached down to collect all of His precious pieces of original design. He saw the end from the beginning. And now, He finally had two yielded lumps of clay from which He was able to form a united vessel for His glory.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We still have our moments of frailty. Sometimes the old he or she is provoked by particular circumstances. And yet, these are the moments in which we are able to recognize the good work Christ has done in us.

It’s in those awkward moments my dear man says something like, “If I ever meet your first husband, I’m going to tell him a thing or two!” And we both laugh. We celebrate that the new has come.

With love from the fun couple until next time,

Randy and Lisa