I worked in the construction industry for twelve years. For twelve years, I was surrounded, day in and day out, with men working in a man’s environment. The language that was peppered throughout my place of employment on a daily basis would make a sailor blush. It was such a part of my daily life that I didn’t even hear it. There was one man with whom I worked who could use a curse word five times in a sentence: as the noun, adjective, adverb, pronoun, and verb. It was nearly comical.
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There was a time in my life when I would have defined “your walk” specifically in terms of how you walk with God. As in, do you go to church? Do you give a tithe? Do you pray before meals?
I looked up the dictionary definition of “walk” in these terms and this is what I found: 8. to conduct oneself in a particular manner; pursue a particular course of life: to walk humbly with thy god.
Pin ItOne thing I hear all the time is that people’s lifestyles are so crazy and there isn’t time to spend with God. The thought of just fifteen minutes of devoted prayer time and a five minute “Sound Byte” devotional is overwhelming to many, not to speak of hours of devoted prayer time and hours of devoted Bible study. Yet, the average American adult spends 3-4 hours a day watching television.
I was talking to a retired homicide detective last week. He said that every dead child, every drug induced murder, every senseless death born of greed and anger and malice destroyed him inside. But, as a homicide detective, he couldn’t let those emotions out. Instead of going into some dead child’s bedroom and crying in a corner, he had to buck up and do his job. To compensate, he would go home and drink. His wife didn’t understand what he was struggling with, because he couldn’t open up the floodgate of emotions that would come as a result of acknowledging them, and in the end it nearly destroyed their marriage.
Pin ItTwo months into my first marriage, my husband quit his job. I had to withdraw plans to start school three weeks later, and we had to pack up and move back to his hometown. That decision he made started a cycle of unemployment/employment that made our marriage very stressful and very hard. Between the financial problems we faced and the addiction problems he faced during our over nine years of marriage, his adulterous affair and our divorce was a relief for me. I was very much over marriage, had no desire to even date, and never intended to be in a relationship with a man again. Six weeks later, I met Gregg.
Pin ItMy husband Gregg is an incredibly upbeat man. He’ll say he’s very moody; however, that moodiness he feels typically doesn’t manifest until it comes out in his writing and his poetry. His outward attitude is one of confidence and joy. He sings while he works and does chores around the house, he teases and jokes, he laughs, he has fun. He is encouraging and exciting, ready to go on an adventure in a spontaneous moment. Even when I feel myself reacting negatively to something, he’ll crack a joke about it or lighten the mood enough that I’m able to work through the negativity.
Pin ItGregg and I were married when he was 34. In those 34 years leading up to meeting me, he had buried his mother, graduated high school, fought in a war, got out of the military, attended three colleges, obtained 30 professional certifications, started a career, gotten married, gotten divorced, and lived another five years dating and working and existing.
Long story short, he’d lived thirty-four years.
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