I thoroughly adore my wife. She is God’s gracious gift to me. Proverbs 31:10 says, “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.” That’s how I feel about Deb. She’s everything to me. I cannot imagine life without her.

And she’s not only God’s gift, but also God’s instrument. I am becoming a better man because of God’s love and word through her.

My conversation with Deb last night was one of those moments when I experienced God’s presence and voice in a powerful way through her. I’ve mentioned before that Dallas Willard states that we are at the mercy of our thoughts. How we perceive things shapes our feelings and sets us on a particular course. If our perception is distorted or faulty, then so are our feelings. And even worse, our direction can lead toward some fairly destructive consequences.

To make a long story short (and ambiguous), I’ve been swept up with some fairly faulty thinking about life and personal success, influence and importance. And that faulty thinking was being reinforced by some powerful, yet distorted feelings. I tend to process this kind of stuff internally. But our conversation last night was a safe place to finally verbalize a lot of inner turmoil.

And that’s when God used my precious wife. She listened and thanked me for trusting her with my thoughts and feelings. And then she began telling me a different story from the one I had just told her. Within just a few minutes, she opened my vision to things that my faulty thinking and feelings had blinded me from. It staggered me. Five minutes and my distorted story was deconstructed and reconstructed so I could get my eyes off of myself and back onto the real Story that God has placed us in. It was so gentle and so loving and so affirming.

Thanks, Deb! You’re amazing. I love you.