Bearing with Quirkiness

From Lee:

I like cold potato chips, cold peanut butter, cold cookies, and cold Pop Tarts—so they all go straight into the refrigerator after I make a grocery store run. Sometimes I put pepper on vanilla pudding, but I have to be in the mood for it. I sleep with the television or radio on, but I keep both of them off when I’m working. I like my house to be cold and dark; one friend says it is like a cave. And I’m sure I have a bunch more quirks that don’t come readily to mind.

I bet you do too.

But do you ever worry about revealing your quirks while you are dating someone, thinking that he or she might reject you as a result? Or maybe you are more like me—anxious to get your quirks out in the open as quickly as possible in a preemptive strike so you won’t have to deal with rejection over your quirks later on.

Let’s turn it around. Do you look for “unacceptable” quirks in people when you are dating? Or do you subscribe to a cumulative quirks limit? Once he or she hits it, you are gone. I’m not talking about being incompatible because of lifestyle choices. And I’m not talking about sinful choices. I’m talking about a person’s odd habits. My trusty dictionary software says that a quirk is just that—“a strange attitude or habit.”

The Bible has something to say about dealing with such things. Colossians 3:12-13 says that since we are free in Christ, then we are to “put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another . . .”

Ever since becoming a Christian, I’ve been intrigued with this call to bear with one another. It’s so unnatural. In fact, it takes supernatural strength from on high to practice it, but indeed, as Christians we have that.

I love what Matthew Henry said about the notion of bearing with one another: “Mutual forbearance, in consideration of the infirmities and deficiencies under which we all labour: Forbearing one another. We have all of us something which needs to be borne with, and this is a good reason why we should bear with others in what is disagreeable to us. We need the same good turn from others which we are bound to show them.”

If we are supposed to bear with the quirkiness of fellow believers, how much more should we bear with the quirkiness of someone whom we love and hope to marry at some point?