"Stories on the Sabbath"

                                 The T.V. Clicker

            "Give me the clicker (remote as most people call it) please," I said as I began to clench my teeth.

"No, I'm doing just fine with it," my husband said with a certain air of superiority.  For the next few minutes I once again endured the seasick channel surfing that I so strongly detested.

It was Saturday night and I was exhausted.  It had been a full week and we had just put the children to bed.  It usually takes me longer to say goodnight to all of the kids than it does my husband.

 Finally I finished with the kids and I walked into our bedroom, looking forward to relaxing and watching a nice romantic movie with my husband.  However, my husband Craig had other things in mind.  As I opened the door I was greeted with the sound of Star Trek!  Ugh!  I hated all of those kinds of space-type movies.  I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard him change the channel.  The familiar sound of the sports announcer filled the room.  Football - that was the last thing I wanted to watch!

I went into the bathroom and began brushing my teeth trying to decide what to do.  I heard him change the channel again and I rushed out just in time to see a Clark Gable-type hero bend down and kiss a beautiful woman.  I let out a romantic sigh.

"Honey, this is the movie I was telling you about.  Please can we watch it?"

Craig rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders.  For now he relented.  I laid down on the bed next to him and began to relax and enjoy the movie.  But my enjoyment was short-lived when after only a few minutes of watching my chosen movie, it was time for a commercial again. Now we were back to Star Trek and then to football, then a commercial and then football and Star Trek again. 

I was not in the mood for this, so I sweetly asked for the TV clicker.  Craig made no attempts to surrender his control of the TV remote.  Finally I begged him to turn back to my movie, which we watched for only a little while before another commercial came on.  The channel surfing began again.

"Give me that stinkin clicker," I demanded as I reached to grab it from him.

In a playful mood he pulled it away and held it up like a prized possession.  "This TV clicker is like the Priesthood," he said with all the sophistication he could muster. "Only men can hold it!"

"Oh, yeah?" I said as I tackled him, "and they can also lose it if they don't treat it right!"

The evening had started out fun but as time went on, we both got irritated with each other.  I got mad and then said a few things to Craig which made him equally mad.  Before we knew it, we were in a full blown fight.

Finally Craig stood up, tossed the TV clicker on the bed and walked out.

I had won!  Or so I thought.  At last I had the clicker to myself and could finally watch my romantic movie.  I soon realized the movie wasn't any good without my hubby next to me.  I hadn't won after all.  As the night went on, I began to realize how stupid we had been.  Satan had succeeded to get us upset with each other, whether it was over something big or just a stupid TV clicker.  I remembered a quote that James E. Faust had said, "Sometimes in marriage the big things are the little things."

As I lay there thinking, I remembered Robert Millet's talk a few weeks before at Know Your Religion Series where he said that whenever he and his wife were upset with each other, the Spirit left their home.  Oh great, I thought.  The next day was Sunday and Craig and I were going to teach the Gospel Doctrine class together.  Monday was the first day of school and Craig had planned to give each of our children a Father's blessings before they went to bed.  I knew both of us needed the Spirit and realized neither of us could do what was required of us unless we made up.

The movie was over and I could hear Craig locking up for the night.  Even though I knew I should apologize, I got scared.  I heard his hand reach for the door knob and so I quickly jumped off the bed and pretended like I was praying.  He went into the bathroom and started brushing his teeth.  Since I was down in the position, I decided that I needed the Lord's help in this matter.  I prayed that he would help us make up.

When Craig came to bed, he offered our couple prayer. He didn't even mention anything about our being upset with each other.  Maybe he wasn't mad after all.  But once we got in bed, I could feel his coldness and I knew differently.  I tried to make myself say something to him, but nothing would come out.  Several times I tried to force my hand to make that long journey over to his side of the bed, but it wouldn't move.

Then I started thinking, "Hey wait a minute here, whose fault was this anyway?  If he wouldn't have been so fat-headed about the TV clicker, we wouldn't be mad at each other now." 

I rolled over and decided that he needed to make the first attempt and when he did, I would forgive him.  But as I lay there, sleep would not come.  The quote from President Benson seemed to haunt me.  "PRIDE is concerned with WHO is right, HUMILITY is concerned with WHAT is right. When we humble ourselves, the Spirit will always tell us WHAT is right."

I finally rolled over and put my hand on his.  He squeezed it back.  My cold heart swelled with love for him once again. 

"I'm sorry for being a pain tonight," I said, barely speaking loud enough for him to hear.

"I'm sorry too," he said.

I reached over and kissed him and then whispered, "But not really!"  We looked at each other and burst out laughing.  The tension was gone and as we began talking about what had happened that night, we realized how stupid the whole fight had been.

As the years have gone by since that experience, I've often reflected at how easy it is to lose the Spirit in any given situation.  I've learned how imperative it is, especially as parents to have that spirit in our homes.  I think of all the service that we do as parents, in raising our children and running the house hold and keeping the home fires burning; if we accomplish all of these things, but we do it without the Spirit, we are just going through the motions and nothing more.

In order to truly offer ourselves up as humble servants to the Lord as parents to His children; we must keep contention out of our relationships and our home.  I think the greatest service we can give to our children is parents who love one another and have the Spirit in their home. 

You know, it's amazing how interesting football or even space-type movies can get when you take a minute to learn what's going on!     

                                         --Michele R. Garvin, wife and mother of five (over 15 years ago)

                                                                        (Out of Small Things)