A Funny

I got a little irritated with my husband today. As a member of the church I work for, he often gets monthly offering-counting duty. This is his month. Because my position's Monday duties include accounting for the offering, I noticed a discrepancy and called to ask him about it in order to know if someone had told him to do something other than what should be done.

He told me what he had been told to do, so thinking out loud, I commented back that it should not have been done that way, so I would have to either correct it or send it to the accountant to deal with it. At that point, he started telling me what to do.

Okay. It's my job. I have been working there since 2004, and as my boss tells me, I am the Office Goddess: I think things out, I make the decisions, I make the rules, I set office procedure, I fix things, and what I say goes. So when he started telling me what to do, I admit it: I got irritated.

It's not like this is the first time I have gotten irritated with my poor husband for telling me how to do things I know how to do that are things he has no clue about! It actually happens often! But I keep my tongue. Today, however, I decided it was doing neither one of us any good to continue being silent about it.

A while after I had been home, I brought it up to him. Leaving out his side of this conversation:

"We get along really well. I rarely get irritated with you, because we really get along amazingly well. Perhaps that's why when I get irritated with you, it really stands out to me. But I have to bring this up to you because I need help. We both need help on this issue. I am asking for you to think this through and help me.

"Today, when I called you about the bookkeeping problem, you tried to tell me what to do. I run the office, and I know what to do, Honey -- you don't! Yet you told me what to do, and you were wrong!

"So I said, 'Uh-huh. Uh-huh,' and that was wrong! I felt like a liar. I felt disrespectful toward you, because I wasn't being honest. The problem is that this happens often, and I don't know how to do this right! I need your help!

"Is it because you were born a big brother and i was born a little sister? Do you think that's what's happening? But I need a solution.

"First, I really need you to try not to tell me how to do my job -- at work and at home! I admit that it bothers me when anyone tries to tell me what I already know or what they don't know when I do. I know this.

"Second, I need a better attitude. I am sorry I am troubled by this and that I have not said anything.

"What do you suggest?"

He apologized for the misunderstanding, thought a moment, then he said:

"Well, it really doesn't matter if I get my way or you get my way . . . ."

And that was the end of the conversation. We both broke up laughing and never bothered to finish our conversation!! I'm still snickering!

But I know we will both be more careful . . . .