Parents' Romance
My husband had been away for a few nights and I wanted to look my best to welcome him home, so while the children were playing in the afternoon I excused myself and went off to shave my legs and wash my hair and generally get gorgeous. He arrived home slightly earlier than expected so I was still in the bathroom when I heard the kids screaming, "Daddy, Daddy!" and scampering from all over the house and garden to run and greet him. I love hearing excited kids with their dad - it's my favourite sound in the world. I love how they all talk at once to him and I can picture them scrambling onto his back and clinging to his legs as he greets each one by name and tries to respond appropriately to the jumbled stories that are tumbling out of each one of them. Amidst the happy chaos I heard him asking, "And where's Mommy?" "Oh no, Dad, you're not allowed to see her yet. She's very busy in the bathroom." My oldest daughter was defending my desire to be prepared to meet my husband - she loves a good dress-up! I smiled as I heard her supporting the romance of our marriage. This is a little girl who, when we adopted her at the age of four, was extremely jealous and protective of me and would sulk for hours if Richard showed me any affection. I am so pleased that over the years she has learnt not only to accept the loving romance of her parents, but now even to defend and promote it. Our children are aware of the romantic goings on between my husband and I - the phonecalls, the sms's, the excitement to see each other again, the dressing up to impress each other. For them, all of those fun and games belong in a marriage and it makes them look forward to being married one day. When they see the blushing romance in the correct context of our marriage, it helps them to see how 'out of place' that romance would be outside of marriage. We reaped the fruit of this the other day when my daughter came home from a church service after being told by a rather handsome boy that she was "cute". She asked me, "Mom, did God tell Solomon to write that we 'shouldn't awaken love until it so desires'?" (She was referring to a love song in the bible where the lover encourages young people to wait for the right time before allowing love to be awoken in their hearts.) I told her, "Yes, my girl, He did." She thought for a few moments and then asked incredulous, "How did God know how I would feel?!" Wanting to keep her heart obedient, and concerned that her 'one day' husband was doing the same, she proceeded to ask me to pray for her husband, that he too would protect his heart like she was choosing to do in this moment, and wait until they were ready to be married before indulging in the romance she witnessed daily within our family home. What fun to have the responsibility of modeling to our children what a life-long crush on the boy or girl of your dreams looks like when done the way God designed!
