A healthy relationship is one where two whole people make a commitment to help make the other person the best version of themselves.-Wendy Treat

Today my husband asked me if I needed any help. I had worked all day to get several projects finished and was in the post school, cook and scarf down dinner, clean it up, wrap up loose ends and run frantically out the door for a church function whirlwind. That morning between packing lunches, dressing boys, doing my daily devotionals, hiking in a blizzard to the bus stop, and working out at the YMCA, I had stripped all of the beds, washed the sheets, and somehow also managed to wash my sweaty run streak clothes.

(Full Disclosure: I’m a gross person and in the winter will often wear the same outfit 2 days in a row on my runs. In the summer I don’t do this because I start smelling like a zombie, but in the winter I bend the rules of polite social conduct.)

I asked my husband if he was sure he wanted to ask that, and he assured me he was. Do you know that wonderful man not only asked me if I needed help, but then followed through? He put the clean sheets on the boys bunk beds and made their beds. For sure it benefited him to do this, otherwise the boys would be up all night waiting for me to finish after we got home from our event, but it was an unnecessary act of kindness.

The life lesson in all this is that any wonderful relationship is made up of a series of these unseen, untouted, simple grand gestures. A phenomenal marriage is usually the outcome of a daily choice to carry the weight of life, responsibility, family, and fun with each other. Although he’s always good at speaking my love languages, it’s the unexpected extra mile in a frantic moment that keeps a girlish smile on my face. Yes. It is possible to have the rush of an adolescent crush in a mature, seasoned relationship. I’m racking my brain to see what I can do to one up him. Let the games begin.

What simple, unexpected thing can you do today as a grand gesture of love, commitment, and relationship?

Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. (Romans 12:10 NLT)

At the finish line of the 2013 Akron Marathon together after running 26.2 miles side by side. He’s the best pacer.