Men's Meeting

Men's Meeting at our church is the first Friday of every month. The men meet at our Pastor's home, they sing hymns, listen to a lesson from our Pastor, discuss things, drink beer and smoke a cigar or pipe. It is quite the event and I know my husband really enjoys going. When we were first married I hated men's meetings, really. I didn't want to be alone. I was nervous at night by myself, and I was bored and just missed my sweet husband. I would complain and imply that I didn't want him to go, and sometimes he would stay home. And when he did go he wouldn't stay that late. Looking back I was really quite the brat.

I'm not sure when my attitude adjustment started taking shape, but I realized that although Clay did want to go he wasn't really enjoying it because he knew I was having such a hard time. So I started "planning" what my night would look like so I had something fun and out of the ordinary to do. Tonight is a men's meeting night and I watched a couple episodes of the Walton's, made some earrings, piled more clean laundry onto the pile, made gluten free chocolate chip pancakes, tried to snuggle with my sleeping 2 year old but he wanted to go back to his bed, and now...I am blogging. Sound fun? It was indeed. I will probably start reading my book in a little bit and probably when I doze off my sweet husband will come home and I will ask him a ton of questions...what did Pastor teach on? Who was there? What beers did you try? Did anyone smoke your pipe (I think this is gross, but guys don't...)? But you know, since I have started planning my night, I look forward to men's meetings. Not because my husband is away (I still miss him) but because I have something different to do and Clay is with other great men doing something out of the ordinary as well. This may sound strange to some of you, but I think there are things that men and women do to feel masculine or feminine. For a man, drinking beer and smoking a pipe is masculine. There is something about sitting around together, popping the top to a cold bottle and then talking about it. I have heard them, somewhere in there is a great thrill. :) I know these things are not the root of masculinity but it is nice to "feel" it. Just like a woman might like to wear earrings, paint her toe nails, have a pretty apron to wear, get a new hair cut, or slap on some lip gloss, the bottom line is to feel feminine and nice. I don't think these things are bad (in moderation of course) but just the opposite, I think these means to feeling masculine and feminine are good. Of course, masculinity and femininity are a condition of the heart but there are little things to help along the way. Maybe the sweetness of the pancakes is getting to me but I feel like I am rambling and not conveying my idea well. :) Bottom line, I have learned my husband needs to feel masculine just as there are things I need to feel feminine. And you know, of all the months I complained about men's meeting I never remember Clay complaining about my complaining. --- Thank you Babe for being long suffering and merciful to my lack of understanding.