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“You mean, the Bible will let us know what temperature we should set our thermostat?”
He laughed. And she smiled, like she liked the sound of his laughter. Maybe the way he liked the sound of hers.
“Actually, if you want to get technical about it, it does.”
“Really?”
“Sure. The Bible says the man is the head of the house, so I get to decide what temperature the thermostat is set.”
“That doesn’t really sound fair.”
“Don’t ever say that God’s way is fair. Not in our eyes anyway, but there is one caveat.”
“Caveat?”
“The Bible says that the man is the head, the authority over the woman, but the man has a command.”
“Okay.”
“The command is to love the woman as he loves himself. Now, I have a dilemma. Do I put the thermostat where I want it, because Iam the leader of the home? Or do I put the thermostat where you want it, because I love you as I love myself?”
“Well. That’s tough.” She grinned. Smiling at the silliness of the example, but he figured she probably understood what he was saying.
“So, if you’re truly going to be a man of God, you have to balance the fact that you are the authority with the fact that you are commanded to love me.”
“Yeah. Not just that, but I’m also commanded to give you honor, as the weaker vessel. Those are the Bible’s words, not mine.”
“So maybe that just means I’m physically not as strong as you are?”
“I don’t know. Adam wasn’t deceived by the serpent, Eve was. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but possibly it means that women are more easily led astray than men are. We have a tendency to be more analytical about things, while women seem to be led by their feelings.”
“And sometimes our feelings are right.”
“And sometimes they’re not. But the data doesn’t lie.”
She didn’t say anything, and he wondered if maybe he pushed her a little bit too far. He and his sisters had had more than one discussion about exactly that. And, while his sisters had lots of things to say, they couldn’t argue with the fact that Adam, the man, hadn’t been the one that had been deceived.
“You know, I don’t know if we solved anything just now, but just the fact that you took the time to come out here and sit down with me and talk to me, about things that don’t even really matter maybe, but you just... Instead of working, instead of pushing to go make our appointment, you gave me the time I need. That... Means a lot. Thank you for your attention, and your time.”
He nodded. “I guess what we were talking about, the man being the provider, I feel that pretty heavy, like I need to provide for you for our children. For my family and my siblings. That’s not going to go away once we get married.”
“I don’t expect it to.”
“So I want to work hard. If I spend a lot of time on the ranch and ranch making it successful, part of it is for me. My reputation, because people have loaned me money, and I need to make sure that I prove myself worthy of the trust they gave me, but a lot of it is because I’m driven to take care of the people who depend on me. That’s my siblings, and I assume that would be my wife and our children.” He made sure to sayourchildren, not her. Because he didn’t want there to be a “her children” and “his children” or “their children”, and there to be some kind of difference. If they were married, any children between them would be theirs.
In his eyes anyway.
“Where are the kids?” He felt a little bit odd asking, since they hadn’t discussed it. Maybe they should.
“Nelda has them. She took them to the playground in Sweet Water this morning, and they’re sleeping right now.”
“Here?” he said, indicating the small house that was just a few steps away from the larger one.
“She took them to her house. I... I don’t really know where that is.”
“I’m going to have to give you a tour of the farm. But, are we still getting married?” He held his breath, hoping that her answer was still yes. He didn’t know why. He probably should have cold feet and want her to as well.
But he didn’t. Now more than anything, he wanted her to continue on. He felt like they made some major strides, knowing that they agreed on some things, and while he didn’t expect things to go perfectly, he had to admit he was excited about moving forward.
