blooming with Brooke

Friday nights are my favorite. Austin and I have created our own little tradition of doing a grocery pick-up at 9 p.m. every other Friday night. We take our goldens with us because they love a good car ride and of course, Austin and I have to grab a coke zero on our way home. We carry in all our groceries together, and then I take my time sorting through everything and putting each individual item into its proper place. I love grocery day. Saturday morning, I opened up our refrigerator, and this profound feeling of blessing just washed over me. Odd that a dozen eggs and some bottled water could draw my attention straight to God, but that’s exactly what happened. I stood there staring thinking about how good God is to me, to us…incredibly thankful to have a fridge, to have food and drinks to fill the fridge, to have an income to buy these items, to have a house to put our fridge in. It took my breath away. I closed the door but my mind kept trailing back to this fridge.

Later, I began thinking about my marriage. I am a huge proponent of love languages. If you’re my friend, family member, or someone I’ve given relationship advice to, you definitely already know this about me. In order to love somebody well, you have to know how they want to be loved! (If you’re not familiar, Gary Chapman, published his ideas on the 5 love languages back in the 90s. The five love languages are words of affirmation, physical touch, quality time, acts of service, and gifts.) Love languages can speak to be how you love and how you want to be loved. It didn’t take me too long to figure out Austin’s love language once we were married. He was always thanking me. Thank you for making the bed! Thank you for making dinner, for doing my laundry, packing my lunches, cleaning the house, etc. Have you guessed his love language yet? Yes, I’m married to an acts of service junky. Yikes. I remember thinking that it’d certainly be a lot easier to love someone that just needs a quick compliment every now and again, or a quick kiss on the cheek on my way out the door. But, God saw fit to give me a boy that needs acts of service to feel loved. This was a difficult adjustment for me at first, but I believe that God used Austin to show me my greatest calling.

My greatest calling is to be a wife. Ever since I was just a little girl I prayed and prayed and prayed for my future husband and for the opportunity to experience being a wife one day. When I tell you that Austin is my biggest answer to prayer, he truly is! I am so thankful for his presence in my life, and I feel so blessed that I am able to fulfill my purpose as a wife and help him. Taking care of my husband and our home is my greatest calling. I love cooking homemade dinners because it means I have a husband. I love budgeting for us because it means we’re working together for a common purpose. I love cleaning our house because it means we can have people over to share in our happiness. We have a sign in our home that has one of my favorite quotes on it. It reads, “the greatest work you will ever do is within the walls of your home.” You are replaceable everywhere except in your home. Sometimes I need this reminder. My best efforts should be put into my husband and my home. I’m really thankful that Austin is an acts of service guy. What started out as me only putting great amounts of effort in to impress him, has actually made my realize how much I adore being a wife, being a cook, being a cleaner, and being whatever he needs. God gifted me with Austin so that I could fulfill my great calling…wifehood.

& that is how my refrigerator sent me into a spiral of contentment and joy.