I mentioned in my last post about our anniversary that Jairo is always very supportive of my dreams and ideas. I have an example of that, which I am really excited about. For a long time I have wanted to develop an English curriculum to use in the ministry. I´ve looked at tons of ESL books, and I don´t like any of them. I went to college for languages, so I have a lot of experience learning foreign languages. I´m no professional in linguistics, but I have a lot of experience being a student of language, so I have seen a lot of textbooks and made a sort of mental list of the things I liked and didn´t like, knowing someday I would want to attempt my own curriculum. I´ve put this on the back burner for some time now, having always had much too much to do to even think about it. However, since I am under house arrest, I mean since I am ¨resting¨ so much, I once again got the ESL bug.
I started by outlining more or less the first level and what I wanted to teach. Then I started in on chapter one. Like I said, I´m no professional at this, and I´m just doing it in the way that makes sense to me. I got a little bit done on it before I showed it to Jairo. I asked him to look it over, proof the Spanish, and tell me in general how well it was working. He looked it over for me dutifully and said he was really impressed and ¨people will actually be able to learn from this book¨. I took that as a compliment since Jairo hates learning English.
So I decided to see how much he really liked it by proposing my full plan to him. Jairo is a graphic and industrial designer, and does everything artistic. I told him I´d like him to help me by doing the illustrations for the book, and showed him more or less what I wanted. He switched into professional designer mode (yet another side of him I had not seen) and explained to me how I needed to lay everything out in order for him to do the drawings. Apparently he was taking me seriously, which was pretty cool. Well, he bought me a special notebook where I can do the layout ideas for each page, and that´s what I´m working on now. He is waiting on our computer to get fixed so he can start on the illustrations, so for now I´m getting a head start. It might seem sentimental, but I like the idea of the ESL curriculum so much more now that we´re doing it together. And I really liked the idea before, so you can imagine how much I like it now!
I think it´s important for spouses to take an interest in the ideas, dreams and interests of the other. I think first and foremost we are here to help each other and be each other´s closest friend. Your spouse is the one person you really don´t want to laugh at your dreams! I know that aside from God, the one person who I really care what they think of me and my plans is Jairo. When he supports me and what I want to do, it´s like he gives me altitude for flying. If he didn´t support me, though, I would probably be tempted to give up.
That being said, I think we women who are wives should try to take a minute and think about how well we are supporting our husbands. Do we take an interest in his job, his hobbies, his interests and his dreams? Do we even know what they are anymore? I bet if we are doing a good job supporting our husbands, it won´t take long until they do the same for us. I find a lot of contentment in the fact that my husband is my best friend, and I think that kind of relationship is only born when we prove that we can be trusted with each other´s dreams, no matter how silly or impossible they might seem.
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