Dunk

The blogging has been really intense lately. I am seeing a need to make it even more so. Something that has been on my mind and heart lately is the dunkability of the average cookie. This is the result, for me, of a great deal of Research and Development resources. The following is my list of the top 5 best cookies for dunking in a tall, cold glass of milk:

• #5 - Girl Scout "Thanks-a-Lot" Cookies - this cookie has undergone a number of face changes and different manifestations, but the concept remains the same: shortbread that soaks up the milk, half covered with a fudge that deflects the milk. Mmmmm.
• #4 - The Keebler Fudge Stripe ring cookie - Similar in theme to the above, but with the added fun of being able to put your finger through the middle.
• #3 - The Nilla Wafer - Dunking them until they are soggy and starting to fall apart means that you can throw a number of them in your mouth at one time.
• #2 - The Original Chips Ahoy - It has to be the original, because they now come in sleeves of like 25 cookies, which I could eat in one sitting. Awesome!
• #1 - The Double Stuff Oreo - The absolute KING of dunkability. It is to other cookies what the Star Wars Trilogy is to all other movies.

I am sure some people will have opinions on this list, but I know my list is absolutely true. I suggest getting some cookies and indulging today. I find some alone time with a package of cookies is like a spiritual retreat. Good luck and happy dunking!

AHHHHHHH!!!!

I am such a dumbass. I spend all of this time trying to help people and even counseling people in their marriages. Then, I fall on my face with my wife Teresa, treating her horribly. She was feeling a lot of stuff because of the holidays, because of a great deal of dysfunction and pain from this time of year in her childhood. She was acting out of that, and was complaining. I was tired and crabby, and I was sick of the holiday myself. Rather than listen to her and support her, I got defensive and told her, basically, that she needed to stop her whining. Then I compounded the problem by hiding behind some kind of moral and relational superiority by stating that I was just trying to challenge her, as if it were for her own good. God, who is gracious and merciful, let me know that I am a dumbass.

I have no idea what it will take to retrain myself. I need to reorient my entire thinking process, so that when I am in situations like that, I can make better choices. Afterward, it is easy to see the whole stupid path I took, but in the moment, I do not deal with my wife in some kind of vacuum. She and I are intimately involved in each other's lives, and it is near impossible to break away from that. There has to be a way, though, to be involved emotionally with her, but to still choose to serve my wife lovingly.

The most important thing I can do for her is to help her feel important, safe, and loved. I don't want to do the opposite any longer. I hear people say, Dude, you're just a guy, and that's what guys do. I simply don't accept that. I want to put on the new man and do away with the old. I am tired of settling in my marriage. I want to be an exceptional man and an exceptional husband. Any less would be selling myself short of who God created me to be.