anecdotal wisdom

I am not one of those people who easily remembers Bible verses, quotations, jokes.  But sometimes a snippet or idea will stick despite myself, and sometimes I think it is because God wants me to have it on hand, so to speak, when I need it. 

Once of those that has stuck in my mind, and resurfaced over and over again through the years, was originally a little throw-away blurb at the bottom of an article in Reader's Digest, of all places.  If you have ever read RD (who hasn't at some Dr.'s office at some point?) you know that those are the little humorous anecdotes that the editors use to nicely fill up otherwise blank space at the bottom of a page; most likely things readers originally submitted for one of the magazine's regular reader-submitted features, but which, for whatever reason, were not considered worthy of inclusion.  I read it years ago--I mean years, probably when I was in college, most likely even before I was dating DH--and did not think much of it at the time (or I would have saved it!).  And yet, it stuck, and the older and more experienced in marriage I have become, the more I value it for its simplicity and grace and truth.

So here is the little story, my paraphrase of course:

At my Great-Aunt and Uncle's 50th wedding anniversary party, I made sure to get a moment alone with my Great Aunt to ask her the secret of their long and successful marriage. 

My Great-Aunt said to me, "Well, it's very simple.  The night before my wedding, I decided that I would keep a list of ten things that my husband could do that might make me mad or drive me crazy, but which I would choose to overlook for the sake of our marriage."   

Curious, I asked her, "So, what were some of the things on the list?"

And she answered, "You know, I never did get around to making that list.  But every time he did something that really made me burn, I just said to myself, 'Lucky for him that's one of the ten!'"

Brilliant. 

And--since this is pretty much the way I imagine Jesus keeps track of our "transgressions"--the embodiment of Grace.  


Oh, and don't go thinking poor DH is doing anything particularly "list-worthy" these days--I've just been meaning to share this for a while and finally remembered when I had time to blog! ; )