“Honey we got to talk.” Words every husband loves to hear!

Of course my wife never ever says that because she is about as perfect as they come and because she reads my articles.

Husbands would rather do almost anything to get out of these talks. Mostly because these talks aren’t really talks at all. They are more listens.

One of my strategies to avoid these uncomfortable heart to hearts is to take a sudden interest in things like walking. Or fixing the car. Or even root canals.

My garage is full of junk so fixing the car is out of the question. I can’t afford to go to the dentist so that’s out. So I suggest a walk. This buys me time to guess what she wants to talk about. One day I might just ask her but until then, I suggest we walk.

Actually I love to walk. Stella, my wife, loves to walk. Our dog loves to walk. The problem is we walk very differently. Spot and I are more meanderers than walkers. Stella is more of speed racer than a walker.

She takes off at a speed normally reserved for military jets, dust and small animals twirling in her wake. That woman can really move! Spot and I try to keep up. We really do. The first few miles we do okay with my legs just pumping as hard and as fast as they can go and Spot running like the little Greyhound he is.

Stella enjoys this pace. I don’t. So when she sees me laying face down and Spot’s tongue hanging out of his mouth ( or it could be the other way round, I can’t remember) she will pick me up, give me the look of complete sympathy, and try to walk at my pace. This makes Spot and I very happy. Now I get to hold her hand for romance instead of support and for a few moments floating hearts are bouncing gently off our heads as we swing our arms in time to some silly old love song.

But walking this slow is not comfortable for her. And her torturous pace is not comfortable for me. For a bit we can adjust our walk to make the other one happy. In the end though, both of us enjoying the walk is a difficult goal to turn into reality.

One solution is to take walks for different reasons. One walk will be for fitness (UGGH!) while the other walk is for fun. Guess which one I like.

No matter how we walk there is no use in getting mad at each other. I know. I tried that. No matter how mad I got at her dangerous speed walking or how many times I told her of the dangers of going into a curve too fast, she still likes to walk excessively fast. And no matter how many times she asked me to speed up, that is just not my style. Our walks are just different and there is nothing we can do about that.

This makes me think of our walk with God. My walk with God is different at different times. There are times when I am running with God, everything is just right and he is leading me to the Promised Land. Then there are times in which my walk is slow, almost a crawl, as I navigate troubled times. And there are times in which I am laying face down not going anywhere.

Everybody’s walk with God is different. Some meander all over the place. Other’s seem to be in a hurry. Our paths are all different too. Some are flat and smooth while others are rough or hilly.

Your walk with God may be as different from my walk as from Stella’s walk. And that’s okay. Everybody is unique and everybody’s path is unique. And the times God lets us walk together are beautiful.

But if your walk is different from the next guy’s walk it doesn’t mean you are better than or worse than that person. We all must walk our own path with God

And if you see some poor guy with a little Greyhound laying face down along your path, please stop and pick him up!