Once in a while, I find myself with spare time on my hands around the house. It’s rare, but it happens a few times per week. When I find myself in that position, I am so unselfish 🙂 that I look for things I could do to surprise my wife:

Wash the dishes, pickup around the house, really surprise her by taking care of some laundry…

One of my love languages is acts of service, so I immediately set to work on one of these small items, knowing that my wife will be so blessed when she gets home and finds this task done. She will, it’s true, but there’s a problem with my thinking if I always resort to this list first…

There are a few tasks in my world that will never appear on a list, my wife will never ask me to do, and she’ll never be surprised that I’ve done them. In fact, she probably won’t even notice – unless I neglect them completely.

Studying the Bible, exercise, praying for our marriage and our children, managing our finances…

These things will never appear on her list, because they’re “my job”. Those other things need to be done and when I have time, I should show honor and care for her by doing them. Never at the detriment of the things that are my primary responsibility though.

Hey dads, are you neglecting “your job”?