Comeback Kid



We went bowling the other night with some friends and got completely schooled in the first game.  I continued to hit the gutters and impress with my abysmal consistency in the second game, while Stephen, on the other hand, turned things around and ended up taking the highest score of the night.  The other two couples were probably more surprised than I was.  I've learned over the years that Stephen, although sometimes the underdog, has the kind of patience and persistence that get him the best kind of results.  While I'm busy giving up because "it's just too hard" or "it shouldn't take this long," my husband chugs along without complaint.

I wrote a letter of recommendation for his youngest sister recently, only to realize a few days after writing it, that so many of the qualities I appreciate and love in her are the same qualities I appreciate and love in my husband.  Quiet, hard workers who neither need nor seek praise or attention, they fulfill their responsibilities not because anyone is watching but rather because it's their duty.  It's the right thing to do.  I am daily grateful for a husband who recognizes his fatherly duties and willingly meets them.  I know it's not a given, even in this day and age, to have a spouse who wants to be home, who helps when he's home, who puts his family above all else.

That sense of duty translates to so many other areas of his life.  Work, calling, hobbies, sports, his family, and probably most importantly, his spirituality.  Patiently working hard at all of these things has changed his life and mine for the better, and, yes, made him one serious pro at comebacks.