A Log and a Speck.

With new year here, I have made a decision to be more open. So, I thought I’d let you all in on the fact that I have a superpower. I don’t like to boast, but sometimes you just have to share these things. Otherwise, well, no one will know, will they?

My personal superpower is one that wouldn’t ordinarily be on display outside of my own home, so no one has ever properly admired me for it. And it’s worth admiring. So here goes – my super power is an absolutely razor-sharp ability to both diagnose and provide solutions to all my husband’s problems. I can do it every time. It’s like having x-ray vision. I can unpack the childhood origins, reveal the life paths that have led him to whatever it is, and even give truly stunning suggestions as to how he might want to move on from these things. Sometimes I think I’ve missed my vocation as a counsellor.

I rarely use my gifting outside of my marriage. I’m not sure why, but somehow I feel freer with hubby to truly express myself. I do wonder sometimes though, whether I shouldn’t spread the joy a little wider than that.

But there are two things that bother me. Firstly, he seems to think he has the same superpower, but in diagnosing my problems. (He doesn’t!) And secondly, he doesn’t seem to take on the advice! I mean, who would ignore such ninja-level insight? I don’t get it.

I do wonder whether, in his case, perhaps he needs to pay more close attention to scripture. After all, what did Jesus say about taking the log out of your own eye before seeing clearly to take the speck out of someone else’s? I’m sure that’s in there somewhere.

Perhaps part of what Jesus is getting at there is about perspective. It’s not that our own problems are necessarily worse, it’s just that we need to treat them as though they are worse. Our own stuff needs our attention as though it’s log in our eye, but someone else’s stuff only needs us to give attention as if it’s a speck. I’m sure the world would be a better place if we had that balance right.

This, needless to say, is an insight I shared with my husband just the other day, knowing, with that clarity of vision that I have, that it was exactly what he needed to hear. Sadly, he didn’t seem too impressed. Which is why I’m sharing it with you.