Glenn Beck Was Right

I read an article today that really struck me in the heart. It was from Glenn Beck, which kind of surprised me, and the title was “Loving the Right Woman Makes You a Better Man.” I could not agree more, and in the article, Beck says something else that I believe is also true for my own situation with my wife. Words to the effect of committing to his wife and committing to God were the two best decisions he ever made. He also mentioned that if he hadn’t done the former, he doesn’t know if the latter would have happened.

Beck has been married for 15 years, and I have only been married for a little less than 6, but I will say the same thing right now.

Committing to Jen is the best and smartest decision I ever made. Had I not done that, I do not believe I would be in the same place “spiritually” I am today. Had I not stood on that altar and made that vow to her and to God—before God—I would not be the man I am today, both literally and figuratively.

I believe now as then that God called me to this place, and this life. I didn’t expect it and I sure as heck wasn’t looking for it.

It happened because of my wife’s God-given Whitson boldness. I needed that, and if she hadn’t been the person she was, well. We would have screeched to a halt because I had made a vow to myself I fully intended to keep.

I wasn’t going to look anymore. I wasn’t going to try anymore. Not after the last time.

Am I good man, though? A good husband and father? I don’t know, but I sure want to be. If I am, it’s because of the love this bold and beautiful woman showed me. Take last Valentine’s Day, for instance. I had emergency gall bladder surgery, and she spent two days sleeping sitting up in a chair next to my hospital bed.

When this current thing with the Bell’s Palsy happened, I said something to her like when she said “in sickness and in health, she sure got more than she bargained for.”

She told me that was what she signed up for. For me. Sick, healthy. Me.

It’s being with her that made me realize just a little how God probably sees me. She just loves me, and never mind that I don’t come in the traditional packaging for a Ward Cleaver type of husband. She doesn’t see any of that stuff.

She sees me.

For who I am, not who I should be, or maybe would like to be. That’s enough for her. It makes me want to do better. Be better. She makes me see people differently, and think differently.

She prays for me constantly, as I do for her.

Sometimes we sit on the couch and we watch TV with the kids, sometimes by ourselves. I like to hold her hand, and look over at her every once in a while.

A few weeks back, I took a picture of her in her dad’s music room practicing for The Rock Christmas Eve service. She was going to be singing “Silent Night” solo, and she wanted to get it down. The picture isn’t a glamor shot–it’s just my wife after a regular day, beautiful as ever. It’s all her and I love it. Her hair is pulled back and laying across her shoulder. She has her head down and she’s looking at a piece of music or a chord sheet or something and she’s listening to the music playing on her dad’s computer, which you can see in the background. She’s just sung the words

Son of God, love’s pure light

And I have tears in my eyes as I take the picture. Because she loves God, and she loves me, in that order. I’m not embarrassed to say it, or feel it. I love her and I love God all the more because of her. She is the right woman, the only one for me. The woman in that picture changed my life, no doubt in my mind.

We’ve made a life, and a home.

We get to serve together most Sundays.

We get to pray together.

We get to laugh together (a LOT).

We get to raise our kids together.

We get to lift each other up.

I think Glenn Beck was right.

Loving the right woman makes you a better man.