Family Life Lessons: Meet Amy

Wednesday September 7, 2011


Welcome to Family Life Lessons!

Come sit with us. Grab a mug of coffee or a cup of tea. And meet some friends.

I've asked some blog friends to share what God is teaching them about their family or family life.

Today's guest of honor is Amy Sullivan. When I got this inspiration, I thought of Amy immediately. I'm a big fan of her blog, her book idea, and her family's mission.

Enjoy Amy's offering. And go see her here.

When the Scale Tips My Way
and a Lesson on Crowning Myself Leader

A year and a half ago, my husband and I asked ourselves a question: Could we move from addicted to ourselves to devoted to others?

We wanted to discover what serving looked like in the everyday, and what serving looked like to us, an average, middle class family.

As months passed, my enthusiasm for this idea grew, and my husband’s enthusiasm faded. One day, I decided to give my husband a few gentle reminders about his involvement in our family’s goal. These gentle reminders sounded like this:

“Do you even have a passion?”
“This shouldn’t be about me forcing you to care.”
“The only thing you think about changing is the channel on the TV.”

You see, the delicate who-does-more-in-the-Sullivan-house scale tilted in my favor; clearly, it was my job to point that out.

Maybe I spouted these words because over the last five days, I kept an imaginary list of all the ways in which I gave in our home. I made every lunch, kissed each real and imagined hurt, and waded alone through the pits of potty training. In my eyes, I served our family more, and therefore, I crowned myself sole leader in our family’s goal of serving others more.

Then, I stomped off because I do that, and he sulked off because he does that.

But as my I’m-better-than-you-attitude bubbled, I started to wonder if maybe I missed my husband’s efforts because I was too busy praising my own.

He spent his day off with that lonely high school kid. He drove three hours to offer help.
He talked on and on about the human trafficking speaker. He gave up Monday through Thursday afternoons to coach.

And that’s when I reminded myself (again, again, again) the changes we strive to make for Him are never led by us.

What about you? Have you ever been guilty of doling out gentle reminders of your own? Share, share.

Image credit link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/archeon/2941655917/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Thanks, Amy! (I'm ever-so-guilty...and thankful for your reminder, friend.)