The way my husband is

Mark, all in the span of three days, has done the following:

*He has gotten up with Adelia in the four o'clock hour (one night, in the three o'clock hour) for her bottle feeding. [She doesn't normally wake at this time but has a cold so has woken up for an earlier feeding all week.]

*He does this even when he's gotten VERY little sleep. Last night we went to sleep at 12:30. This morning, at 4:55, Addie awoke, and Mark's feet were first on the floor to get her. I found him in the kitchen, Addie in arms, sleepily spooning formula into her bottle. "Honey, let me do that" I offered. He smiled, shook his head, and told me to go back to bed. (This from a man who's job is very physical. (He's not sitting in a chair all day, people. He needs his rest.)

*He also does these middle-of-the night wake-ups with not one complaint. The truth of it is that were I to get up, three or four nights consecutively, at that time of the day, everyone would know about it. And as I climbed back into bed beside my sleeping spouse, I might just bounce the mattress a bit harder and maybe I would sigh, just so that he was quite clear about the sacrifice I'd just made. I'm just saying. That would be me. That would NOT be Mark. He simply- and cheerfully- serves. Because he loves me. (And he loves Addie, too.)

*He has gotten home from work the past two nights (remember: long, physically exhausting days) and made dinner for our family, because I have been sick with a cold this week.

*Since I've been feeling so crummy, every day he has called our children over and asked them if they wanted to pray for mommy. And they have rested their little hands on me, and prayed.

*The other night when I asked him to run to the store for a few things, he came back with three items especially for me. (Gummy bears, black licorice, and my favorite bag of chips.) Just because.

*Today, he stopped in at home during his work day and brought me a bouquet of cheery sunflowers.

*Everyday, he reminds the kids to be good during quiet/nap times, so that "your mommy can have a nap".

*Everyday at lunchtime (he gets to come home for lunch), he holds Adelia on his lap so that I can eat without a baby in arms.

*He has cleaned the kitchen, taken out the garbage, straightened the living room, corrected our children, rubbed my neck, asked me how I'm feeling, and a million other things, I'm sure, that I have neglected to notice or mention.

Oh, I am thankful for this man.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.
~Ephesians 5:25-30, NASB