Wake up call

This morning I really blew it....

It started out like every other morning, woke up, showered, got dressed, and otherwise got ready for the day. Rachel was stirring and we talked a bit about what I should take for lunch, and everything was peachy. I headed into the kitchen to make my sandwich, and Rachel hollers out from the bedroom, "There it is!"

"There what is?" I reply as I open the bag of homemade bread to put some meat and cheese on it. I realized that I was running a bit behind and really needed to get moving since I had a phone call to Spain scheduled.

"Do you hear it?" She calls back just as I realize that the homemade bread wasn't going to work. It was too fluffy and was almost falling apart in my hands.

"Hear WHAT?" I yell in my frustration over my failed sandwich attempt. I reached for the store-bought bread instead and started yanking out slices of bread.

"It's the woodpecker."

"Rachel, I'm trying to make my lunch!" I angrily yell back at her. (To be fair, I wasn't mad or frustrated at her. I was angry at the bread, which seems really silly now.)

I was answered by dead silence. My heart dropped and I knew I had messed up. I took a deep breath, calmed myself, finished my sandwich, and told myself that it would be better to get to work late and resolve this than it would be to get to work on time. I walked down the hallway and into the bedroom to see tears running down my wife's face. I sat on the bed and said those two little words, "I'm sorry." There was no excuse for my behavior, no rational explanation for my outburst, just "I'm sorry."

Thankfully I have an awesome wife who understands how messed up I am. She forgave me, and I asked her if she'd like to go look at the woodpecker. We walked out into our backyard and saw the little critter. It was banging away on one of the metal vents on our roof. I swear, that's the craziest woodpecker I have ever seen. I have watched it do the same thing on all the neighboring houses, and I can't figure out why it chooses to bang its beak on all those metal surfaces. We laughed at its antics and commented, "at least it's not tearing up the wood."

I made it to work on time for my phone call, and everything went smoothly. Interestingly enough, during the conversation, my coworker in Spain gave me some advice about living with a newborn. He said that there will likely come a point where Rachel and I will both be so tired we'll start snapping at each other over the silliest of things. It may be two weeks, it may be two months, but I need to watch out for when that time comes and be extra careful in my words and actions.

That is so true! This morning's mess up was a wake up call to what's coming. Not only in my interaction with my wife, but also in regards to my interaction to my kids.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (Ephesians 4:29)