Sunday, November 16, 2008

If I Had Only Known...


If I had known last night what I know now, my thankful post for yesterday would have been different.

A few weeks ago, our church had stake conference and a person from another ward spoke. He mentioned how he had had a beard for a long time and how proud he was of his beard. Apparently, it was long and full and he would spend quite a bit of time grooming it. He took way too much pride in this beard. The vast majority of men in our church are clean-shaven, a look encouraged for all males. As a gesture of obedience, he had finally shaved off his beard.

For those of you who don't know, Darrell has had at least a mustache for almost all the time I've known him (if you start from 1975 when we actually met). I can count on one hand the number of times he's been completely bare-faced. Nothing against clean-shaven men, but once you've kissed someone with a mustache and/or beard, there's no going back. It's like kissing a boiled egg! That's my opinion, anyway.

Darrell has been thinking for a while that he should shave his beard off. We've talked about it off and on--he knows how much I like it and was deferring to me. When this brother spoke at stake conference, it really pricked Darrell's heart. He kept whispering to me that he felt like this brother was speaking directly to him. I would whisper back that he didn't take pride in his beard like this other guy was talking about, so it didn't apply. Last night, Darrell brought it up again and I realized that he was feeling pretty strongly about shaving and it must be weighing heavily on his mind. So I told him to do what he felt he needed to do.

This morning he came to me and told me to run my fingers through it one more time, because he was going to cut it off. I hope he didn't notice, but I got tears in my eyes. A bit later, Darrell came back into the bedroom looking dejected. He had shaved everything but the mustache and didn't like the result. Guess it'll take some getting used to for both of us. At church today, we sat in the back so that "no one would have to look at him" (as Darrell put it). Then he was asked to give the closing prayer--which meant of course that he had to get up in front of everyone!

As I reminded him later--I fell in love with him before he had a beard and it's not the beard that keeps me around. He's still the wonderful, sweet man I love! In case you haven't figured it out, I'm thankful that my sweetie listens to the promptings of the Spirit and is obedient. (But if I'd known his intentions yesterday, I would have written an ode to the beard.)
He won't let me post a picture---yet.

8 comments:

The Borders said...

I really want a picture- I don't think I have ever seen him without it.

Darrell said...

and you may never. :(

6L's said...

i was wondering why you guys sat on that row today..it was unusual. i was so busy with the kids that i didn't pay attention to your face. definitly need to post a picture! come on darrell, don't be a poor sport...hehe....you can gorw it back but we wanna see! :)

Lauren said...

It's not his face I love. It's his compassion and empathy and respect for others. It's how he can make any person feel like comfortable around him. It's how he can fix anything at any time. Beard or no beard, he's still my favorite dad.

Lauren said...

I didn't mean "like comfortable." Two thoughts at once--comfortable and like he's known them forever.

Never Enough Orange said...

It is hard to keep up with a clean shaven face, but I feel better about myself. I did not have mine for nearly as long as yours, but you will get used to it eventually. It took me about 6 months before I recognized myself in the mirror.

The Wheelers said...

oh man, i've got to see a picture! just so i'll recognize him when we are out there for christmas! what a big change, i'm impressed for his reason for shaving if off.

Sharon said...

I love the picture of you guys, you look so sweet. I know I don't know Darrell very well but he must be a great man. I'm looking forward to getting to know him better.

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