Troublemaker or ?

Sometimes I have deep pity for my poor husband. Today was one of those days.

It began innocently enough this morning, when he suggested we attend Sunday School together, something which for various reasons we haven't done for quite some time. There was a bit of a catch to this simple request ♠ he was really inviting me to join the latest "Experiencing God" group at our church.

I'm not a program person. Canned studies all too often give me the willies, whatever they are. My husband knows this odd bent of mine but nonetheless felt it was important for him, as a church leader, to go through this study that so many are all enthused about. He wanted my input as well. Plus, he probably had some notion that this would be a wonderful bonding experience for us as a couple.

Today was the orientation and overview. All was going fairly well until we were directed to read and sign the "Group Covenant" in the back of our workbooks, and then pass them around so that everyone could sign everyone else's covenant.

My husband dutifully signed his without hesitation.

I just sat there. Finally I spoke up, "Covenant is such a serious word."

"Yes, it is," agreed the facilitator's wife. She highlighted the reasons for and importance of several of the items we were being asked to covenant to do.

Meanwhile, my husband was no doubt cringing inwardly. Must his wife begin causing problems the very first day of the class? I remembered all too well his plaintive, despairing plea of our early years of marriage: "Why can't you be like all the other wives?" Alas, he'd had the misfortune of marrying a nonconformist who has all sorts of crazy ideas. (He's even come to embrace a number of those wacko ideas as his own. Poor man.)

I stammered something awkwardly about having a personal problem with signing covenants, because of how seriously they are taken in Scripture. In a feeble attempt to lighten the situation a bit, I joked that I'd made a covenant not to make covenants. My husband, no doubt desperate to prevent my launching into some long speech that might turn into a diatribe, quickly interjected, "The last covenant she signed was when we got married."

The class voted to let me continue despite my bizarre anti-covenant stance. I'll try to behave, really, but I'm sure my husband fears that they will learn to regret that generous gesture.

As for the study itself...maybe I'll post my comments and analysis as we go along. But I won't promise or covenant to do so!