Words That Came to Mind

The other night I was pretty irritated with a certain male member of our household (and it wasn't the male child). I was hoping for a little help with some various household chores. The laundry needed to be done and there was a large stack of dirty dishes that needed to be handwashed since the dishwasher was broken at that point in time. I asked which one he would like to do and neither one was a winning choice for him. He then settled down onto the couch to watch TV. I then asked if he would at least wash the silverware when I had finished all the other dishes. He said OK.

So I start a load of laundry and filled the sink with hot, soapy water so I could begin washing the dishes. And you can bet I was more than a bit irritated at this point in time. The irritation grew with each dish I washed. When I was down to the last few dishes I said I was almost done and his turn was coming up quickly. He sleepily mumbled that he would do them later. I said the water would be cold. He said he would add more hot water and that was the end of the conversation.

I was pretty boiling at this point. I returned to washing the few remaining dishes, muttering under my breath the whole time. Muttering about him sleeping; muttering about having to do all the housework; muttering about every perceived wrong. Somehow through all the muttering this image popped into my mind.

No, no, no. GO.AWAY. I don't want to be the good for someone else. I'm not done yet being irritated that my love language "acts of service" seems to always be overlooked. How hard would it be to show me that you finally understand my love language and show a little love by washing the silverware? Seriously. Or do some laundry? Come on. I don't want to hear you sleeping while I am doing all these things.

But the image wouldn't go away. And so I continued to wash the remaining dishes pondering that image and phrase. What would be so awful about being the "good" for him and letting him sleep? Then the dishes were done and it was time for the silverware. I made the decision to do the silverware and let him sleep. More importantly, I made the decision to let the irritation go about the whole situation. And with each piece of silverware that was washed, the irritation slowly dripped away like the suds down the drain. When all the forks, knives, spoons, serving utensils, etc were washed, I smiled a little smile as I watched the man sleep. It felt good to not be irritated.