- #40D4W Explained: Forty Days For Wife
- #40D4W – Day 1: Check your ego at the door
- #40D4W – Day 2: This is how I roll
- #40D4W – Day 3: A roll of the dice
- #40D4W – Day 4: Vanity, all is vanity
- #40D4W – Day 5: At what price porcelain?
- #40D4W – Day 6: Not far enough from the madding crowd
- #40D4W – Day 7: Laundry by any other name is still Hell
- #40D4W – Day 8: Fibber McGee’s Closet – Round One
- #40D4W – Day 9: Stripping the lights. Fantastic.
- #40D4W – Day 10: Souper Man
- #40D4W – Day 11: A thousand words
- #40D4W – Day 12: Philosowrapter
- #40D4W – Day 13: As nasty as I don’t wanna be
- #40D4W – Day 14: Confessions of an Angry Man
- #40D4W – Day 15: My side of the story
- #40D4W – Day 16: Basic Training
- #40D4W – Day 17: Course it’s a good idea!
- #40D4W – Day 18: Now that’s a fire!
- #40D4W – Day 19 – 31: Mid-Wife Crises
January 14, 2016
Today I went to confession.
As part of my 2016 Goals, I wanted to go. Being a Man, I needed to go. Being a Husband, it’s my duty to go. Being a Dad, it’s my pleasure to go.
My sacrifice today for my Wife and our Marriage was my Time and my Ego in getting myself to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Penance – Confession to Hollywood and Lay People – and celebrating it completely.
Technically, as I understand it, we Catholics “celebrate” Sacraments. They are big mysteries and parties, all rolled up into a visible sign of God’s Grace. So, for instance, a priest doesn’t “read” pr “say” mass…he CELEBRATES Mass. Which I think is cool.
So I celebrated Confession, particularly and specifically for my Wife, Our Marriage, and The Boyz.
I have a tough time with anger. Not the emotion, but the way I respond to it. Granted, I’m much improved in the last year, and I feel the final vestiges of it slipping away almost constantly, but sometimes it rears its ugly head and, when it does, I need to go to Confession. Anger is one of the Deadly Sins. Or, if you like:
That’s true, actually. And knowing my fear we got through that a while ago. Anger leaves a residual scum, though, called hate and suffering and I’ve had loads of that. It’s interesting to have to take on Anger from both sides, kind of squeezing it out like one would pop a pustule.
I never said I wouldn’t be gross…
It was very liberating, and my confessor had some great thoughts and tools that will work with the others I have. I consider this a sacrifice for my Wife because, if I weren’t Married, I could easily have just gone down the path to the Dark Side and not even cared.
It’s a reciprocal sacrifice, though. Mama has done more for me since I acquired my Anger than I think I can ever repay. But I do know the first step towards giving back is getting it into its rightful place, off its throne.