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The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.Proverbs 12:15

The Mathews family went camping this week. Some of us had more fun than others. If you are trying to guess who enjoyed it the most, you are probably wrong. I'm the rugged one in the family, not Scott. And on our sandy vacation, I had a revelation about another hint for irritated wives.

Of course, if I came up with another hint, it goes without saying that I was irritated. It was night number 2. We arrived back at our campsite after dark from a wonderful day on the beach with two borrowed air mattresses and an electric pump. It looked like we would be sleeping better tonight, and I was thrilled. I wasn't thrilled, however, when Scott crawled in the tent and left me to charge the pump, fill the mattresses, and light the fire that our boys had spent the day begging for.

At 2 o'clock in the morning, I realized that Scott and I had gotten a faulty mattress. So, night number 3 again found me trying to fix and blow up a mattress. Note- I'm not spending an hour trying to solve this dilemma for my own benefit. I intend on sleeping on the good mattress. But my motherly instinct is making me feel guilty. How can I sleep comfortably when my boys are moaning in pain? Scott, of course, has gone to the one good mattress and gone to sleep.

After working for a while, I let my irritation get the best of me, and start thrashing the mattress around inside the tent. In the middle of this, Scott lifts his head and says "Why do you always start these projects so late at night?"

His comment caught me off guard, and was rather a good point. Why did I wait so late? If I had really wanted to blow this mattress up for the boys, I could have made an effort to do it in the morning before we went to the beach, instead of at 10 p.m. when we got home. Shoot, if I had done it earlier, Scott might have even helped!

It was a different perspective for me, a mini-revelation, and Hint #3. When you are frustrated with a situation, try to look at it from your husband's perspective. You might be surprised at what you see.

And as fate would have it, I got to practice Hint #3 again the next day. We had spent our last night of vacation with family, and I was packing our stuff to go home while Scott sat around visiting with his Uncle. He had even plainly asked, "Would you get the boys ready to go?" My first instinct was to think "Why don't you get off the couch and help?" But, my new hint came to mind: "Melissa, look at things from Scott's perspective." Okay, I could do that.

I looked, and liked what I saw. Scott's view showed him driving the next 8 hours and me sitting there, doing nothing or catching up on my sleep after 5 nights of camping. Hmm, a different perspective, and I could see his point. He could rest for thirty minutes if I was going to rest for the next 480 minutes.

Perspective-it's all about looking at things from a different angle and getting the entire picture. Try looking at things from your husband's point-of-view, and you just might like what you see.

"'Winging It" from Stan Smith

Washed by the Water of the Word