"You have chosen... wisely."

At the end of the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Dr. Jones must choose one of many goblets that could be considered the holy grail to save his father's life. After making his selection and drinking from it to test it out, the last Knight of the First Crusade tells Indy, "You have chosen... wisely."

I've thought a lot about this line over the past few days and say that I have been very blessed in my selection of a wife. Bethany is truly wonderful and I love her so much but this week she taught me a lesson about charity, love and compassion through her own examples.

It started Wednesday night after I got home from work. I was beginning to feel a sore throat coming on and there were still presents to wrap and my parents had just gotten in town and were going to be with us through the next four days. We got through everything we needed to but my health worsened as the night went on. Sometime after 1:00 a.m., we retired for the night. I woke up early the next morning with a burning sore throat and tried to make it through opening presents that morning. But after getting the kids set up with their toys, I returned to bed and tried to sleep but the pain from my throat was too much and so I laid awake for five hours. Bethany was fine to take care of the children and also my parents and occasionally came in to check on me. When I couldn't see any point in staying in bed awake, I made my way downstairs to where everyone else was and sat on the couch for a while.

Bethany was preparing dinner, dealing with issues with the kids and still entertaining my parents while I was off in the distance on the couch. She didn't once lose patience with the kids. She seemed to be having a pleasant conversation with my parents and dinner was coming along fine because it sure smelled good. I hadn't eaten all day because swallowing my own saliva was excruciating. So I returned to my bedroom for the night and laid awake most of the time until the next morning.

Bethany offered to take me to a nearby Instacare and sat with me for 2.5 hours until I could be seen by a doctor. She talked about so many things with me hoping to help me pass the time. After a few minutes with the doctor and a diagnosis of strep throat and an ear ache, she drove me to the pharmacy to fulfill the prescriptions. She also bought a Chloraseptic spray and encouraged me to use it before we got home. The directions on the bottle state that you should wait 15 seconds after spraying and spit out the rest. So she pulled over to the side of the road and let me do so. It was a little thing but she was willing to do whatever to help me be more comfortable and recover sooner.

Her support for and attentiveness to me were second to none. She seemed like she could do it all and she did. No doubt that kind of attitude came from her upbringing.

What a wonderful wife she is! I did choose wisely. I'm going to get her a medal.

Also, to clear up any confusion, my parents aren't the type to just lounge around and be a burden. They were pretty helpful. Maybe they should get a medal too.