A Gift

Last night was such a gift.  Daniel and I had decided a few days ago that last night was going to be the night that we sat down to look at our budget...ugh.  We use an online budgeting system, Crown Mvelopes, that we like for many reasons....but for the past several weeks as I have been using it I have grown increasingly frustrated with some errors that kept occurring that were preventing me from being able to keep it current and in "real time."  As I was preparing dinner last night and trying to tell Daniel about it, I started going into one of my little complaining rants...yes, a mere 2 days after our pastor preached an incredible sermon about complaining...sigh.  So, what normally happens during one of my complaining rants is I will start complaining about something I'm frustrated about, get more frustrated about it as I complain, complain more, get more frustrated, get angry at Daniel because he's trying to give me another perspective on the problem, start predicting the future and getting angry/fearful about how this problem is going to ultimately ruin our lives, expect Daniel to tell me what steps we are going to take to keep said problem from ruining our lives, etc.  This is where Daniel and I often end up in a big ole' argument because by this point, I am refusing to see any perspective other than my own and he is just plain ticked off with that. 

Well, last night was different, and it was such a gift.  So, picking up where I left off.  I started complaining about how our budgeting software never updates correctly anymore and it's never current and how are we ever going to be able to track our spending and use it the way it's supposed to be used if it's never current and blah, blah, blah.  I could tell Daniel was starting to get a little frustrated with me, but he remained calm and started talking about how there must be something wrong in the way we have it set up rather than with the software itself because if it's been going on this long they would have had a release by now that would have fixed it, and then he said something about a "code fix" and I just busted out laughing, slowly walked over to him, hugged him and said, "I love that you know that."  Of course he knows about these things!  Have I forgotten that my husband is a software support expert just promoted to team lead, for goodness sake?  So, Daniel looked a little taken aback for just a second, like he was thinking, "Is this really happening?  Is she really laughing?"  Then, he just started laughing, too, and we just laughed.  I told him how thrilled I was that maybe he could fix this issue and maybe our lives weren't going to come to ruin by this little software problem.  And you know what?  He did fix it, in a matter of just a few minutes.  And now it is current and I feel like a new woman as I think about sitting down to assign some transactions later today.

The reason all of this was a gift is because it was so redemptive.  I am not someone who laughs easily in the middle of a complaining rant.  It's just usually like trying to get a bill passed in Congress to try to get me to change my perspective when I'm feeling frustrated and angry.  But God blessed us with His grace and allowed me to see another view, to see my husband's strengths and knowledge as being useful and needed by me, and to laugh.  And he blessed Daniel with the grace to show me patience and to want to use his knowledge to help me, when solving another software issue was probably the last thing he wanted to do last night! And, who would have guessed, one of my complaining rants actually led to us having a lot of fun together last night. Thank you, Jesus!