This blog is for my wife, Lily.  I don’t mind if you all get in on it, but it’s really just for her. You see, we’ve been married for over 28 years and she still doesn’t understand some things about me.

I know there are some men and women out there thinking, “My husband or my wife doesn’t understand things about me, either”.  I’m sure there is some kind of name for this, something like “misunderstandinitis”.

The other day, I heard of a condition called “affluenza” — meaning someone’s wealth can cause them to dissociate their bad actions from consequences. This condition was used to successfully keep a 16 year old out of jail after driving drunk and killing four pedestrians. Some misunderstanding!

I have a condition that causes all kinds of misunderstanding; it’s called hypoglycaemia. It’s a big word but basically it means I get low blood sugar. There is not enough glucose getting to my brain so my body craves more sugar to replace the low supply.

What my wife doesn’t understand is that this happens really fast, and I often get it around dinner time. She hasn’t figure out why I can’t wait to have dinner at 6 or 7; it doesn’t matter to her, she could go forever without eating.

I can almost hear some of you right now asking, “Well Paul, why don’t you make dinner and have it ready when you need to eat?” If I made dinner, I’d be bringing home hot wings three nights a week, pizza the other nights and for variety maybe Five Guys burgers every once in a while.

It would get a little hard on the wallet and would not be the healthiest for us … and I am concerned for my wife’s health, so she has to do the cooking. Okay, enough on that.

Back to her inability to understand me after so many years … At dinner time, I need to eat. She doesn’t understand that my body really reacts. I get all weak, like you would feel if you just ran a marathon, only without being out of breath. I also start to sweat – “perspire” may be a nicer way to say that – and I feel very hot.

I get shaky on the inside – my hands don’t actually shake but they feel like they are – and I crave something to take that feeling away. So I hunt for food, anything, chips, cookies, crackers, peanuts, ANYTHING!

All this happens in an instant. I can be fine one minute and the next, well, it comes over me like turning from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. I get all surly and cranky.

I think that if I lived with a person like that, I would want to keep Mr. Hyde hidden as much as I could. But not my wife! She is surprised every time Mr. Hyde shows up in the kitchen and dinner is 45 minutes to an hour away.

I love my wife; Mr. Hyde doesn’t like her as much as I do, but he still loves her. But man, can I get a little understanding around here?!

Here’s the thing: Often we want what we want from God but don’t think about understanding His perspective on what we want. If we are in an asking position before God, we should be seeking to understand His position … and there is no better way than to become more and more familiar with God’s Word.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you most often misunderstood about? Leave your comment below.