Currently my wife is an engineering student at Wichita State. She is going to school full-time, which means that my education is currently on hold. I am working a couple of jobs (teaching English as a second language and serving at a restaurant), which gives us just barely enough income to keep afloat and gives me little time for recreation and less for blogging.
Understandably, this is a difficult time for me, largely because I don't feel like I'm "doing anything." Of course I'm doing a lot, but I feel like what I'm doing is mundane work, and not the important work I set out to do when I went to university.
And yet I am very thankful.
I am thankful that I am living up to my wedding vows. I get to support my wife financially and emotionally through college. This is a great gift, and not everyone is able to do this.
I am thankful that I have this opportunity to live out my love. Paul particularly mentions "being willing to do menial work" or "associate with people of low social standing" under the rubric putting love into action (Romans 12). It is easy to professionally speak about putting love into action, and much harder to do it. I am grateful for an opportunity to do it.
I am very thankful that I have the chance to live on less than I can realistically afford. There are things I used to consider necessities (soft drinks, occasionally eating out, buying socks) that I have had to dispense with, because they are not currently within our budget. And yet I am grateful, especially because my wife and I still put aside some money out of each paycheck, and out of each day's tips, to give to the church. It hurts, and we feel it. And I am very thankful, because I have hope that this pattern of giving more than we can afford will remain with us when we make more than we need. We may never become that family who says, "We need a raise so we can buy the cabin at the lake. Now we need another raise so we can redecorate the den." And to be possibly saved from that fate, I am very thankful indeed.
-NDSR
Comments (10)
I love the way you think
Going for my second degree has helped me to readjust my financial priorities as well. In the corporate world, I see a great deal of the, "I need a raise so that I can get [insert unnecessary item here]," mentality. Fortunately, not having a good salary and not having health insurance helps keep me from giving in to that mentality.
That is almost Buddhist in nature as well.
That is so sweet of you. I bet your wife appreciates this very much :)
It sounds like ya'll are doing what you need to today to make life simpler tomorrow and that's part of what makes a good marriage the very best.
Your wife is a lucky lady. Do what you guys gotta do!
Wow, you are awesome. Your wife is so blessed to have someone who thinks this way. :)
You sound like a great guy.
This is a wonderful attitude to have.
Contentedness is a rare virtue.