Superman vs. Wonder Woman

I have a confession. I’m a procrastinator by nature. I need help staying on task and organized. I recently shared with a neighbor that I have a daily and weekly chore list with little boxes I check off as I complete a task. He remarked, “You don’t strike me as a list person.”  I smiled and replied, “I’m not.” 

I asked my husband to write the lists for me, to help me remember what needs doing each day to keep our home tidy.

My husband recently said to me, “You’re not a planner, are you?”  I laughed and said, “You’re kidding me, right?  You asked me to marry you eleven days after we met, and I said yes! I’m definitely a ‘wing it’ type of person.”

Conversely, Abraham Lincoln’s quote on preparedness reminds me of my dear husband.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” 

With the one exception of his hasty marriage proposal, my husband truly is a planner. He overpacks when traveling. He packs for hurricanes and shark attacks. I can count on him to have the extra toothbrush, comb, sunscreen, umbrella, flashlight, bandages, batteries, chainsaw, etc.

Sometimes his ways get under my skin, his attention to detail is so meticulous as to feel nit-picky.

Second confession… I rely upon his organization heavily. I am the mother of ten children and people sometimes call me, “Wonder Woman.”  People believe I am able to do a LOT more than I am truly able to do on my own.  The truth is, I have accomplished more than I thought I could because I have a partner who acts as my “Superman.”

King Solomon put it like this, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”   Ecclesiastes 4:12

In military lingo, this scripture might be translated, “Got your six.”  The saying began with World War I fighter pilots referencing the tail of an airplane as the six o’clock position. 12 o’clock is directly in front of you. Six o’clock is what lies directly behind you. On a battlefield, the “six” position is the most vulnerable. “Got your six,” literally means someone is watching your back. 

I might be overpowered alone, but with my dear husband watching my six, I have a better chance at defending myself. However, a cord of three strands – my husband, myself, and God as our ultimate protector, we are not quickly broken.

In the movies, Super Man and Wonder Woman rarely need help. In real life, no one can do it all.  I wing it, my husband plans. We are so different, yet stronger together. God joined us together. He is the foundation of our marriage, the third strand in our rope, the true Superhero who always watches our six.