Perspective or "But at Least I'm Not Bart"

John is trying to escalate things with me again tonight. He is calling me by my first name, telling me he’s going to punch me, yada yada yada. I’m surprisingly handling it pretty well, probably because I know that in a few minutes we’ll have people over and he’s usually able to hold it together while they are here. Maybe in a few hours he’ll forget he’s mad at me and we won’t have to go through the whole bedtime deal.

Sometimes Bart and I have a “whose life is worse” argument, but tonight he wins hands down. Visitation for a teenager’s funeral is not an easy thing to do and I don’t envy him. He will be able to provide calm, soothing, comfort and be a messenger of God’s peace and my mind and heart are there with him. But my weekend of picking up kids from camp, going to the laundromat, speaking on an adoption orientation panel, and hosting a SNACC picnic is busy but not nearly as emotionally exhausting as his weekend will be.

So no matter how much of a jerk John is to me tonight, i will try to be grateful that my kids are healthy, that they are alive, that they still have a future and a hope. I need to remind myself of the task my husband has today and tomorrow and not to feel bad about mine. I need perspective. Hopefully it will change my thinking and help me to move forward without too much whining.