Putting Others First:

O Henry's wonderful little  tale, The Gift of the Magi, about two people in love has amused, encouraged, and challenged folk for over a century.  If you haven't read the delightful short story, I don't want to spoil it for you.  You might want to stop reading this STTA and come back to it after you read this classic.  You can find a copy, here.  No doubt it is, at least in part, because of William Sydney Porter's--O. Henry's real name--

skill, but in part it is because of what I'm about to tell you, that before I got to the little tales closing lines, my eyes were moist.

 " But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi."  
 

If the temperature is below 99 my wife is convinced that one should open the windows and make-do with the breeze from the ceiling fan.  (A slight exaggeration, but cut me some slack.  I'm

competing with a master, here.)  I, on the other hand, if left to my own "judgment" would run the air conditioner anytime the temperature is above 55.  Yesterday Kathy and I went on an errand of mercy.  We knew we'd be gone six to eight hours.  I didn't know it, but before we left my Lovely made sure the windows were closed and set the AC at a level that she judged would be a good compromise between comfort, primarily mine, when we returned and economy, something at which she excels, while we were gone.  When we returned, while I was occupied in some pre-going-to-bed business, she adjusted the thermostat downward to a temperature she figured would be more to my liking.  Having just heard the weather, and knowing that the night's forecast was a bit less hot and humid than an equatorial rain-forest, and in deference to my wife's economical spirit, I, on my way to joining my bride in bed, turned the AC to off and opened the windows.

You'd think that after forty-three years we'd have it figured out.

I've seen a lot of marriage trouble in my time as pastor, but I've yet to have a wife tell me "I'm leaving him because the house is too cold, or a husband confess I had the affair because we couldn't agree on how to set the thermostat.

When we try to apply the Biblical injunction, "Outdo one another in showing honor." (Romans 12:10, ESV) we might get it wrong, and end up laughing at one another.  But, if more of us were like the James Dillingham Youngs we'd be laughing together.

It's STTA.