Marriage Moats-Pointing Fingers

Published: Tue, 04/05/11

Marriage Moats

Caring for Marriage

The other day the children in the Lunch Bunch room where I play with them were making forts. The boys had an elaborate set up with a red cloth draped over the easel, and the girls had a quilt covering the tipped over rocking chair. Each group had collected an array of treasures, like glass beads and legos.

The hide outs were great. Yet the boys kept glancing across the room to see if the girls seemed to be having more fun than they were, and the girls occasionally looked up to see if the boys were doing anything they should copy.

Then one little boy stealthily crept over to the other side of the room, swiped a fist full of marbles, and sneaked back to his lair. Meanwhile one of the girls tip toed across the floor to filch some legos from the boy's stash. When the little boy arrived back at his domain, he saw the damage and in an indignant voice cried, "Hey! That was stealing!"

From my lofty perch as a grown up, this was pretty amusing. But then I thought of a scenario that has happened more than once in my dining room.

I am trying to thin the piles of accumulated mail, and books and games from the table to make room for plates and dishes so we can eat dinner. I notice John's computer and tangle of wires and think "Why does he leave so much stuff on the table?" Then I look over at my sewing machine, which has taken up permanent residence at the end of the table while I finish just one more quilt. Ooops.

Why is it so much easier to see the faults of other people? Perhaps it is God's gentle way of breaking the news to us that we have some character flaws too. It is at least a handy way of getting our attention.

Photo by Jenny Stein