The Marriage Bed

I never enjoyed sleep overs.

This may be a shocking revelation to some because I've been on so. freaking. many. sleepovers, but I always hated them. I'm a very adaptive napper. I think the strangest place I've napped so far is the  Guitar Center floor in Atlanta. Never underestimate how comfortable floors can be. When it comes to bedtime, though, I have very high standards that absolutely have to be met or I will have a bad night.

I had quite a few bad nights when Kirk and I first got married.

Before marriage my full size bed was perfect for little ole me. I'm five foot tall and at the time I was about 120 lbs. I always had a fan blowing on me full blast because I like it to be absolutely freezing when I sleep. I slept in the middle of the bed and had pillows and stuffed animals surrounding me. I liked to pull the covers completely over my head and stay completely buried all night. I was very much into feeling like I was in a nest. When my nest for one became a nest for two, however, I was not feeling it.

My husband is six foot tall when he stands up straight. He weighs around 220 lbs. He's a big guy. He also has Restless Leg Syndrome which you probably don't know about unless you or someone you happen to share a bed with has it. Kirk taps his foot at night. Sometimes only for a little while, sometimes all night, sometimes not at all. I also found out quite quickly that I hated being touched while I was sleeping. Before sleep cuddles are all well and good but I wanted to be able to roll over and have my own little uninterrupted space for sleep. Our little full size bed wasn't big enough for that. My sweet husband was also convinced that he didn't snore, but he does. He can get quite loud, too. Essentially my nice, cool nest became a very cramped, very loud, very hot nest over night; and depending on how bad Kirk's RLS was, it became a very bouncy nest as well. Not fun. I was not happy.

In my husband's defense, it was an old bed. The mattress springs were sproinging up everywhere. The middle and end support beams of the box spring were broken and being held up by books. It didn't even have a headboard so all of the pillows would slide into the dark abyss between the bed and the wall at night. It was by all means not even close to his fault. He was very uncomfortable as well. No matter how many different ways we flipped the mattress there was always a spring stabbing him in the back. It was a small bed and I was constantly pushing him off in my sleep. We were both quite unhappy and about a month into our marriage I was about to lose it. The only real sleep I was getting was when Kirk got up early to go to work and I could sleep in. He knew I was frustrated but I don't think he really knew how frustrated I actually was until one morning I sat straight up in bed and declared "THIS ISN'T GOING TO WORK". Kirk got up and went off to work, no doubt worrying over how in the world we were going to afford a bigger bed. I scooted to the middle of the bed and sighed. I didn't have to work til that evening but the hope of a few more hours of sleep was nowhere to be found. I was wide awake and pissed off. So I did what everyone does when they're wide awake and pissed off- I began scrolling on Facebook.

There it was. The God of creation intervening on behalf of my sanity, my husband's lower back, and our marriage itself. Our friends were getting rid of a slightly used queen size bed, FREE, to anyone that could pick it up that day. It had been in their guest room and they had just gotten a new bed. It was perfect. It was glorious. It was God.

I jumped out of bed.

I made more calls that day than I have ever made in my life. I WAS TEXTING KIRK IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE OMG WE COULD HAVE A NICE BED. By the time I was headed into work I was pretty sure there would be a glorious new bed awaiting me when I got home.

My husband waltzed into my job a few hours before I got off work, looking quite pleased with himself. He proceeded to tell me what was waiting for me at home. An entire bed. Mattress, box spring (NOT BROKEN), sheets, comforter, and headboard. I had a fancy shmancy bed waiting for me at home and I was ecstatic. I came home after my shift and there it was. Kirk had the little lamp on and had made the bed up all pretty. I flopped down and sighed.

Not many things have lined up so perfectly for me in my life. I can tell you with the utmost confidence that I know it was God that got me this bed I'm sitting on as I'm writing this. He knows our needs before we even state them, before we even know what we need. Blessings can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They're often the ones you have to scratch your head at. "Why in the world did that work out?" kind of things. Getting a new bed may not seem like a big thing to some but to us it may as well have been a lifesaver to us. At the very least a relationship saver. Some may think it's silly to pray about such trivial things like a new bed. It isn't. You, my friend, can pray about anything. Everything. We're even told to in the good ole B-I-B-L-E. I didn't expect such a trivial thing to be such a challenge at the beginning of our marriage, but God was there right along with me.