He took on the world.

My mother-in-law once told me how blessed she was because her husband provided and took care of her.  She used these words, "He took on the world for me."  She described how he stood between her and so much of the ugliness and coarseness in the world.  He stood as a filter to protect and defend her and the children, from those who were fowl or who would destroy or challenge virtue and faith.  He labored day and night for her comfort and protection, and shielded her from some of the more difficult and even despicable elements of society.  In this more protected world, she could nurture happiness and love, and  she could believe in the goodness of our divine nature.  This does not mean she was naive.  Rather, she was keenly aware and on guard against the evils that sought to inflict her family.  However, this protected environment allowed her to maintain feminine strengths and a vision for her family from the inside, while her husband built the walls surrounding them.

Her early teaching caused me to appreciate my husband, and his efforts to protect and strengthen me and our children.  I see him struggle against the powers that appear, at times, to be completely overwhelming.  I am amazed at his endurance and I know he is often taken to his very limits, wrestling with the demands and nature of the world.  The world does not allow for tenderness and compassion.  It demands efficiency, and the bottom dollar.  It does not welcome new ideas and offer resources freely; instead it demands conformity and more time than is humanly possible to give.  I witness the battle, and participate from my position behind the lines, sustaining and helping reload our weapons of faith and endurance.  And I pray every day, that together, we can destroy the evils that attempt and sometimes manage to penetrate our walls.

I thank the Lord, that even as my husband pulls on his armor every day, and steps in front of me, to deflect the worst of life's arrows, he still has a loving and tender heart, and seeks to find a way to make me smile.  He is my true hero, and I love him.