Post inspired by Sara's comment :)

Sara's comment inspired a thought for me. Normally at this time of the night I'd be making dinner, hanging out with the Man, talking about how our day went and so on. Today though is different. He had to take then kids somewhere and they wound up in an accident... just a fender bender... not a big deal.. thankfully! In the states this would be one of those times that you exchange info and carry on with your day. In Italy, a fender bender results in about 6 hours of paperwork. The police come. The traffic investigators come. The translators come. Then after all of that is hashed out, you go to the station and type up your accident report. Yep, that's right, YOU, type it up. All for a fender bender.. sigh. So, here I am all alone and feeling kind of odd about it, I admit. I'm a creature of habit, and all this quiet is, well, just weird! It's sort of nice, but I am certainly experiencing a, "what do I do with myself" moment!

Anyhow, I thought I would explain how it works in His house. It's pretty simple. Most of the time I know the minute something occurs that is going to get my butt burning. Honestly, I've gotten His expectations down enough that it doesn't happen that much anymore. When it does, it's one of those, "OMG! What I was thinking? How could I have spaced on that?" moments. On rare occasion, I've gotten snappy, realized it, and thought wow, did I really just do that?? All He has to do is point and I know... what's a girl to do? Snappy is snappy, ya know? There isn't a whole lot to do, but take the position. 

More often that not, at this stage, He will say something like, "So, it seems to me that you were supposed to..." And I gulp, but then explain. Explain, not justify. There is a huge difference. Explaining is telling Him that I was supposed to do x, but I couldn't for such and such a reason. Like:

"Weren't you supposed to order gas today? "

"Yes, but the phone lines were down for six hours." 

That is not the filibuster I was once famous for trying to create :) I realize though that if He weren't the way He is, I wouldn't be so obedient. If my gabbing, justifying, manipulating tactics had ever paid off, then guess what? I'd still be doing them! Why wouldn't I? Getting spanked hurts! If I thought I could weasel out of them, then why on earth wouldn't I try? I'd like to say that I'm really fabulous and would never ever do such a thing, but that's a flat out lie, I would.  

He never let it fly. He has always given me a moment to present a reason for failing in getting something done, changing a behavior and so on (Okay, never a reason for being snappy/disrespectful) but it has to be a true reason. An exception. Car accident, internet down, phone lines out, sort of thing, and anything short of that means I'm toast. When I finally realized that, it was a whole lot easier just to get on with it, and life got better.  Submitting and obeying became easier. There wasn't any point in the filibuster, it wasn't going to work. Obey. Bend over. Get it the heck over with it AND learn the lesson. So now, yeah, he says go, and I go. 

I am sooooo thankful that He is this way. I am grateful I can't filibuster, cajole, flirt, or tease my way out. I needed that. I yearned for it. I almost gave up thinking I'd ever find a Man that would be strong enough to compel my true submission, my peaceful obedience. I will never ever stop thanking God and contemplating my good fortune.

Oh~ I'm weird... I do better with a cane than anything else... even His hand, if anyone can figure that one out, please feel free to enlighten me!

Ah, yay they are on the way home, so I have to fly to make dinner!