Touch-Talk-Walk

“Would you like to join me on my walk this morning?” I asked him as I put my shoes on.

I sure would.  Let me grab the dog and we’ll go.”  My husband, Colin,  jumped up from his seat and grabbed the leash and the pooper-scooper bag.

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It is my goal to walk at least one to two miles a day for health.  For our relationship, it is my husband’s goal to touch-talk-walk daily as often as we can.
  We both include other exercise and interaction, but for our well-being, physically, relationally, emotionally, and spiritually, we know it is important to invest in ourselves and in each other.

I love my husband.  He is a gem.  Clearly God has used him to refine me.  Because relationships are messy and take work, we have had our share of struggles.  However, he likes to say he can’t think of one thing he would change about me and that he loves me more every day.  Fostering that perspective is one of the ways he invests in us.  Because that’s his attitude, he doesn’t need to find anything to correct.  His grace is like a mirror, clearly, yet gently, revealing to me my flaws that God wants me to work on purging.  Being the woman that I am, I am not so gracious, and I am more vocal about my own complaints, but I have learned to be a little more merciful over the years because of my husband’s loving patience with me.

That’s a pretty polished picture of an otherwise imperfect image.  It is the imperfect image though that lets God show Himself at work.  He is the artist who is able to bring forth the best from a faulty photo so that over time, it will better reflect His beautiful likeness.  I can see God’s reflection in my husband, and he can see it in me.  It helps that we look for it and we are thankful for it.

Yes, we look for it.  That's another way we invest in our relationship.  It is too easy to see the many things in each other we want to correct, but when we look for what we appreciate instead, focus on it, give thanks for it, a troubled disposition can be transformed into a grateful, gracious temperment.  When we seek to love each other, we delight in the things we can do to help those around us find more to be thankful for.  Love is a choice that involves commitment to seeking the best in and for those we love.

On this day as we walked and talked and touched, we shared some personal concerns.   As he spoke, much of what he said seemed especially wise and profound.  I was so proud of him, so glad to be with him.  Even though I was terribly sweaty, I grabbed hold of his arm.

“I love when you hold my arm like that.  It makes me feel loved and it makes me feel like you want everyone else to know that you love me.  I like that,” he sweetly said.  “I like that as much as when you tell me you love me.”

“Well I’ll just have to do that more often.”  I smiled.

A little while later after my shower, my husband was working upstairs in his office, and I was working in the kitchen.  I kept thinking about our conversation.  So I texted him my earlier thoughts about how blessed I was by his wisdom on our walk.  

“That was almost as good as when you hug my arm!”  He texted back.

Simple words and simple acts are good investments that go a long way to stirring delight within ourselves and others.




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