It’s About the Soap . . . A Lesson on Serving in Marriage

Getting into the shower only to realize there were two small, broken, pathetic slivers of soap left, I annoyedly got out and took the three short steps it takes to get to the linen closet while two irritated thoughts ran through my head in rapid succession, “Why am I always the one replacing the soap?” and “If I am the one always replacing the soap, then I’ll always be the one replacing the soap.”

And that’s when that still small voice whispered, “It’s about the soap.”

Or picking up the socks . . . doing the laundry . . . making the bed . . . letting the dog out . . . giving the little ones baths . . .

Or maybe it’s about washing the dishes . . . tidying up . . . doing the yard work . . . pulling the trash bin to the road . . . wrestling kiddos to bed . . . paying the bills . . .

It’s about the soap . . .

Marriage, I mean . . . serving . . . commitment and vows . . . loving one another well . . .

It’s not tit for tat. It’s not serving only as much as you’re served. It’s not giving only what you get or about an equal division of labor, his and hers roles, keeping track of everything you do and everything he (or she) doesn’t.

It’s about the soap . . .

It’s about sacrifice in both the big and the small. It’s about choosing to love well on the easy and the hard days . . . yes, even when you’re annoyed. Because y’all love is absolutely a choice and an action and is most definitely not a feeling. It’s about realizing that we all fall short, and we all have hard days. It’s about giving one another a whole lot of grace.

So maybe I’ll always be the one replacing the soap or picking up the socks. And maybe he’ll be the one that always makes the bed or drags the trash bin to the road. And you know what? That’s okay.

It’s about the soap. And that is exactly how it should be.

Copyright 2021, Courtney G Davis, All Rights Reserved 

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