A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN

For the last 43 years I’ve been married to an accountant.  Now I know I don’t speak for ALL accountants when I describe them as detail oriented, organized, and very careful with and about money, but those words describe my husband Jim to a T.  I love it that he’s that way because I am not.

I’ve often joked that I married him because I needed someone to be the numbers person in my life.  He’s the bill paying, tax filing, expenses tracking, budget managing member of our family. If left to me, our check book would never balance, we might be behind in our taxes, and I’d never know how much money is left at the end of a month.

In this country we have a saying, “opposites attract”.  Jim and I have always said that the saying does not apply to us.  We have even taken personality tests at various times and have been amazed at how alike we are! 

 

We’re both introverts.  Being with people expends our energy necessitating some battery recharging with lots of alone time.  We’re quiet with people we don’t know and tend to avoid situations like that.  We both enjoy quiet pursuits like reading, and taking walks.  We can spend lots of time in the library or a book store just browsing. When we travel we love to visit museums and have dinner.  Having similar personalities and pursuits has enabled us to get along really well for all these years.

But there are some ways in which we see things differently.  I tend to be the one more likely to rock Jim’s world with some crazy idea! 

Early on in our marriage I’d seen a TV plea about some starving babies in a third world country and convinced him we needed to sell my jewelry and his coin collection.  If he’d known what would follow over the next 40 something years, he might have thought, “I’d better run NOW!”

There were the many times when I said, “Remember the money we loaned so and so? 

He’s an accountant.  He never forgets stuff like that! I could almost SEE his heart sink, and HEAR what he was thinking:  “Oh, no!  What now?”

 “Why don’t we forgive his debt?” I went on to say.

If I could read his mind, I know exactly what he would have thought: “WHAT?????????  Are you crazy?????????”

He may have thought I was crazy, but he never said no.  Many of our family members have been grateful for Jim's willing generosity.

Then there was the time when I came home and said, “I think the Lord wants me to go on this mission trip to New Orleans to build houses, with teens.”  I was in my 60s, had never been on a mission's trip, never built a thing in my life and had never worked with teens.  If he thought I was crazy, he never said so, and he gave me his blessing and sent me off.

Then last year I said, “I think the Lord wants me to donate my kidney.”  Jim expressed concern for my own health, but not once did he try to encourage me to think again. He was fully on board and supportive.

There was only one time I can think of, and we all laughed about it this morning, when Jim, using NO words, just facial expressions, said a LOT about what I was proposing – and what his face said was, “Okay, now you’ve gone too far!  You ARE crazy and we will NOT do this!"

I’d gone outside to do something and noticed a car at the end of our street with a man sitting inside.  Concerned, I went over to the car to look.  Inside was a very drunk man, fighting nausea, and trying not to be sick.  He opened his door and could barely stand.  In speaking with him I discovered that he had no idea how he got there.  The last he knew he was many miles to the north in New York State.  Scary to think that he had been driving in that state!  He was obviously in no condition to drive home, so I did the only thing I could think of: 

Jim was on his way over when he heard me say to the man, “Well, you can’t drive home.  You need to sleep it off.  Why don’t you come to my house just down the street where you can sleep (and possibly be sick all over).  Then, when you sober up you can go home.”

Oh, my, Jim’s face said a thousand words!  Needless to say, we did NOT take the stranger home.  A neighbor called police and I’m guessing that man had a lovely day and evening sleeping it off in a holding cell in the local lock up.

Jim and I are a lot alike, but thankfully, in the areas where we aren’t, the Lord has put us together so that we perfectly complement one another. 

Jim keeps our financial systems running smoothly, while I help him with his generosity.  I keep life jumping, while Jim keeps me from doing insane things and lives some pretty cool adventures through me.  We are more alike than unalike and we are a match made in heaven!