As my husband has been getting more and more work with the nursing home, I've gotten to see a lot of the ups and downs to different work schedules and time off. He recently worked 4-12hour shifts in a row (although one was technically 9 hours) and all of them were at night. Yep, he was gone from 7pm to 7am. That was hard, to learn to adjust to him being gone all night, sleeping most of the day and then leaving again shortly after he woke up. Today he's working 7 am-7pm and I won't see him until we meet tonight at church. He's also had trouble adjusting to changing from night to day shift so often and quickly and yesterday he didn't sleep at all.
It's hard, as a wife, to know how to properly pray, support, and help him. I am so very thankful for the work God's been providing for us and I try to remember to thank Him for it and to thank my husband for working so hard for us. I believe it's important to encourage our husbands and to be thankful for the work they do.
One thing this season in our lives has taught me, is to be thankful for the wonderful father he is. Sometimes he delights in frustrating Lizzy, dresses her in terrible outfits, is what I consider a little too rough on her or drives me crazy when he gets her all worked up right before bedtime. On the other hand, the other night, after he left and it was time for Lizzy to go to bed, she went to his side of our bedroom to give him a goodnight kiss and was confused as to why he wasn't there. This morning she pointed to his side of the bed, because he's usually still sleeping when he works nights, and kept saying "Dada!" Yesterday at the park, she shrieked with delight as he chased her around the little toddler sized buildings and as he pushed her (what I considered to be too high) on the swings.
I know he's not perfect, but Lizzy sure thinks he is. Maybe we should remember to see our husbands through our toddlers eyes and perhaps we should take some time to see God in the same way. Our hero.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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1 comments:
Oh! I loved this post! My fiancee is a nurse and his hours are going to be crazy, too. Even though we're not married it's still frustrating - we can go a week without seeing each or really talking to each other. Like you, I'm not really sure how I can support him and I know it will be even harder once we have children. Thanks for the advice! At least someone out there knows how it goes...
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