I love this song by the Laurie Berkner Band. It's a nice sentiment, isn't it? "If you're in my heart, you're in my family..." Yet I've learned that it is so much more complicated than that. I wish it were as simple as choosing who to keep in my heart therefore creating my family. That would make it incredibly easy to surround myself with "yes" relatives. Never again would I have to listen to a point-of-view that didn't coincide with my own!
Fortunately, God knows better than I and saw fit to place me in a family that is going to do what is best for me regardless of what I want to hear, see, or do. Actually, they have saved me from making a few HUGE mistakes in my life while also teaching me to step back and really look at a situation before I allow my hopeless romantic tendencies to shoot me in ridiculous directions. I can't really complain when I look at my life now and see how great it truly is. Even though it was key I make some minor mistakes while growing, saving me from the negative life changing ones is an important job for family. In the end I know that I learn from ALL members of my family whether or not I am in the mood to keep them in my heart.
If I didn't already make it clear in earlier posts, my husband's grandmother "gave" us a set of dishes that I didn't want or need. By gave I mean she conned us into paying $100 for them to get them off her hands. This angered me greatly and when they arrived it took everything in me not to kick the UPS boxes down the street. Deep down I know that marrying my husband meant the joining of our families, and if I expect him to respect my family, I should show his the same courtesy. (People can argue with me all they want, but I believe that you marry more than that one person. It's a package deal, so if the future in-laws are pains in the ass before the wedding it is probably wise NOT to get married.) I was due for Reconciliation anyway (I go once a month), so I figured I should ask for some help in handling the anger I felt towards the grandmother-in-law (GIL).
No, the priest did not guilt me into keeping the dishes. Actually, he had me laughing so hard I sort of wondered if I could be heard outside the Confessional. My favorite part was when he told me it would have been instantly gratifying to go skeet shooting with the dishes and when GIL asked how the dishes were working I could say they were a blast! However, in the long run he knew I would feel bad, since the dishes are really nice, if an occasion arose where the dishes actually came in handy. He reminded me how important it was to look at these situations in various ways and helpful if I could find a way to turn the frustration and anger into humor (he also referenced Everybody Loves Raymond in there somewhere). When I started to think about it, it was $100 that we didn't have to pay on the room where we stayed or on admission to museums or food since hubby's dad paid for pretty much everything. Do I like that I was bamboozled? Of course not, but GIL will be gone some day and those dishes might be a fond memory for my hubby if only for him to shake his head and smile/smirk about his grandmother.
Soooooo....
We have a new set of dishes:
No comments:
Post a Comment