Growing Pains

David and I must be about to have a marital growth spurt! Like the growth spurts we experienced as teenagers, our marital growth spurt is being heralded by symptoms such as mood swings, awkwardness, and voice changes! As we begin to attempt to do some of our "missionary" stuff, we have realized that we have to work together much more closely than we have had to in the past. I mean we get to work together more. Now don't misunderstand me. We aren't headed for counseling. Yet. I still like David and he still likes me. I just don't understand why he always wants to do things the wrong way. I mean differently than I would do them. We seem to approach most decisions and tasks from completely opposite directions; yet, amazingly, we discover after rational conversations (sometimes disguised as heated arguments) that our desired outcomes are often exactly the same. So why is it, that if we both have the same destination in mind, we have such a hard time agreeing on the mode of transportation? By the grace of God, we have been able to maintain our sense of humor in this process. As we are preparing to speak at my parents' church for the first time in our role as "missionaries" the conversations go something like this:

David: Let's practice what we are going to say this weekend at Mt. Park Church.

Jenn: Okay.

David: Here is my two page outline complete with scripture references, statistics about France, and key facts about GEM. Jenn, why are your lips disappearing?

Jenn: (Un-pursing lips) What?

David: Your lips are disappearing, what's the problem?

Jenn: Oh nothing, I just thought we could kind of 'wing it.'

David: But I don't want to be unprepared. We need to honor these people by having a plan. Why are your lips disappearing?

Jenn: (Un-pursing lips again and thinking but not saying: Does boring them with facts and figures honor them?) I don't want to stifle you, David, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how our two styles are going to fit together.

David: (with pen in hand ready to make changes to his outline) Just tell me what you want to say, and I'll put it in.

Jenn: Well I don't really know exactly what I want to say, I just kind of want to tell our story.

David: So tell it. I'll take notes and change the outline.

Jenn: I wasn't really planning on working off of an outline.

David: Well then how will we know who is going to say what and when? And your lips are disappearing again.

Jenn: (un-pursing) Can we work on this tomorrow?

We have had an exchange similar to this almost every day since last Thursday. David has given up on bringing his outline to the discussions, and I am spending more time concentrating on my facial expression than really figuring out what I want to say. We still have five days. A lot of growth can happen in five days. But it probably wouldn't hurt if some of you started to pray.

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