I’m buying my bride of nearly twenty years a chess set for Valentine’s Day. (As it’s meant to be a surprise I hesitate to put it in writing here, but hey, who reads InspireAFire anyways?) One of her love languages is quality time spent together and, after many years of research, spending such time in front of the television is lowering our standards of quality.
Why chess? Well for starters the queen is the most powerful piece on the board, and the king the most vulnerable. Makes for an interesting marriage analogy right in line with Peter’s admonition in his first letter, chapter 3 verse 7, ” Husbands, live with your wife in understanding, give her honor as you are heirs together of grace, that your prayers may not be hindered.”
In order to play the game you must face your opponent. Too often treating our spouses like faceless hindrances to our personal agendas gets to be the default position behind the closed doors of our home, bedroom, or family room. Perhaps I should just speak for myself, but I don’t think I’m alone in confusing fear of the Mrs, with fear of the Lord, as a precursor to wisdom.
I will have to teach her the game, so a commitment to honest instructional communication is paramount. ( I have some track record here as she can well appraise the intricacies of baseball performance and strategy because of my quite vocal tutelage, and I , in turn, can follow a Boston Celtics game with an appreciation of history and skill because of how she schooled me in the tradition of the winningest team in the NBA.)
I will teach her how to play, how to win, and I am sure she will teach me how to teach. The game will reveal itself to us, as we reveal, or conceal our selves, again and again, to each other. It is no secret that I will use this opportunity to make a move on her, after all “Check Mate” is just another way of saying, “I do.”
Very well put.