{"id":2266,"date":"2023-01-06T10:06:54","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T15:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2266"},"modified":"2023-01-06T10:06:54","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T15:06:54","slug":"being-who-we-were-made-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/06\/being-who-we-were-made-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Who We Were Made to Be"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.
\u00a0
\u201cI think this is the neatest gift you have ever given me.\u201d
\u00a0
My wife spoke those words to me about 25 years ago on Christmas Day.\u00a0
\u00a0
While every husband yearns to hear such praise, what Mary Sue had just unwrapped was a 16-inch blade Stihl chainsaw.\u00a0 She was beaming.\u00a0
\u00a0
Mary Sue grew up loving tools.\u00a0 Her father was the manager of a hardware store.\u00a0 When we got married it gradually dawned on me that she actually liked <\/em>trying to troubleshoot mechanical problems and fix broken appliances.
\u00a0
I was grateful for her technological enthusiasm.\u00a0 But I was also a bit insecure.\u00a0 There is compelling evidence that I came into the world technologically clueless.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t \u201cthe man of the house\u201d supposed to sleep in the garage with his new Kubota tractor, the way it happens in the commercials?
\u00a0
Early on we made another marital discovery.\u00a0
\u00a0
While Mary Sue thinks that time spent in the kitchen is time she could actually be doing something else, I love to cook.\u00a0 I find grocery stores fascinating.\u00a0 What\u2019s not to like about spending hours whipping up something that you just know family members are going to love?\u00a0
\u00a0
That\u2019s why, about the time I presented my wife her new chainsaw, she thrilled me with the gift of six never-need-to-be-sharpened Henckels kitchen knives.\u00a0 I have used them virtually every day for the past quarter century.\u00a0 They are undoubtedly one of the neatest gifts she has ever given me.
\u00a0
When we got married we didn\u2019t think life was going to turn out this way.\u00a0
\u00a0
I was going to be Bob Villa on This Old House<\/em>, and she was going to be Rachel Ray.\u00a0 But we found out that our gifts and inclinations were entirely opposite.\u00a0
\u00a0
It took us a few years, but we finally got over feeling strange about this.\u00a0 And that opened the door to negotiate all kinds of other things in our relationship.\u00a0
\u00a0
What if we trusted that God had prepared us to provide for and care for each other in ways that were somewhat nontraditional, but would allow us to experience great joy?
\u00a0
The apostle Paul makes that very point in Romans 12:5-6 when he acknowledges the diversity of gifts within the Body of Christ: \u201cSo since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ\u2019s Body, let\u2019s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren\u2019t.\u201d
\u00a0
Our personal experience has no doubt strengthened our marriage.\u00a0 I would say that I love and honor my wife even more, and I have a really good reason not to end up in conflict with her.
\u00a0
After all, she definitely knows how to use a chainsaw.\u00a0
\u00a0
And all I have is a drawer full of kitchen knives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here.\u00a0\u201cI think this is the neatest gift you have ever given me.\u201d\u00a0My wife spoke those words to me about 25 years ago on Christmas Day.\u00a0\u00a0While every husband yearns to hear such praise, what Mary Sue had just unwrapped was a 16-inch blade Stihl chainsaw.\u00a0 She was beaming.\u00a0\u00a0Mary Sue grew up loving tools.\u00a0… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[229,226],"class_list":["post-2266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gifts","tag-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2268,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions\/2268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}