Why I Love My Husband

By way of my friend Bonnie, I recently stumbled upon a terrific blog titled More Like Mary – More Like Me. Kaitlin Alfermann, the feminine genius behind the blog, runs a series called “Why I Love My Husband.” Kaitlin explains:

I started a series called “Why I Love My Husband” on my own blog and was so encouraged by the number of women who wanted to follow suit.

I’m so saddened when women complain about their husbands. It’s one thing to have an actual problem in your marriage and seek the advice, counsel, and support of a good friend. It’s another thing completely to trash the man you chose to marry and spend the rest of your life with. It’s not acceptable. We need to be building up our husbands with everything we have within us, not cutting them down with hurtful comments to other women. Yes, they have faults. But we don’t need to expose those faults to others. We don’t need to go on and on about them.

If you’d like to reject a culture that says it’s acceptable to tear down your husband, join me with this blog series!

Sign me up, Kaitlin. My name is Lisa Schmidt, and I’m reporting for duty! 

Today is Joel’s birthday, and it seems right and just to honor him by joining the “Why I Love My Husband” blogging parade. In my humble attempts to reject a culture where husband-bashing is an everyday form of entertainment, I present to you 5 reasons why I love my husband. (There are plenty more, of course, but let’s start with these!)

 Why I Love My Husband, The Inaugural Edition:

1) Joel willingly embraces his duties and responsibilities as headship of our family. He has a remarkable knack at maintaining peace and harmony in Das Schmidt Haus. He serves me in love and I am emboldened to pour my heart into making our house a home. I am a better wife, mother, and woman for being married to an Ephesians 5 kind of guy. But let’s be clear. He’s also an Ephesians 5 guy who gets the term complementarianism. He leads. I submit. He serves. I serve in turn. He also supports and encourages me to share my charisms and talents in accordance with God’s will.

2) He’s smart. Wicked smaht. As in Ph.D.-in-biochemistry caliber smart. He’s so smart that he’s been criticized for using big words like aliquot, eversion, mediatrix, lipogenesis, and agrobacterium. Babe, I say keep talkin’ smart because when you do, those around you sit up a little straighter and talk a little smarter, too. And aren’t we all a little tired of being talked to like a fifth grader, anyway? Joel, thank you for encouraging all of us rise above the lowest common denominator.

3) He has super rad cooking skills. Oh my gosh can this guy cook! All that time standing behind a lab centrifuge learning biochemical sciences is now coming in handy with food sciences in ye ol kitchen. Have I ever mentioned he baked and prepared all the desserts for our wedding reception? And because I love cheesecake, he insisted it was best to serve cheesecake instead of dry wedding cake (or was it the other way around?). So at the wedding feast at Jester Park, we served an assortment of strawberry white chocolate and orange mocha cheesecake slices hand-prepared by Chef Joel. Delicioso. Now where’s my fork?

4) Why do I love my husband? Because he’s so darn happy and nice. While that perpetual optimism often drives me nuts at 5:00 in the morning, what a gift it is. I am ordered to gripe and be lazy. His simple daily witness of living a faithful, joyful Catholic life makes me want to also live a faithful, joyful life. He’s contagious!

5) He watches Downton Abbey. And he doesn’t just endure it, he gets into the Granthams and their family of servants just as much as I. The plots and ploys, the twists and turns … rumor has it that Joel’s been keeping a countdown calendar set for January 6, 2013 — the premiere of Season 3! Soon and very soon, sweetie. Can you hang on for just a few more weeks?

Happy birthday, Joel. You are a joy. Thank you for serving and loving the kids and me as you do. We are better because of you. Now what did I miss?