On bringing happiness...

Yesterday I mentioned that somewhere down the line in Deuteronomy there's a verse about the newly married man, and today it was in my scheduled reading! Here it is; better to be quoted distinctly than referred to off the cuff.

• Deuteronomy 24:5 NIV

  If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.

I hadn't remembered that it excused the guy from 'any other duty' as well as from being sent to war!
When Kiki and I were married we had both just started working for a Christian school in Ketchikan Alaska. She worked with the Kindergartners while I was a school bus driver and roving teacher's aide. Anyway, school started about one week before the wedding and Kiki was introduced to the kids as Mrs. Miller to help them avoid unnecessary confusion. We were married then, on September 11 BTW, and I think we got like 3 days off of school.
Seeing as how it was a Christian school, I think I should have taken this verse from Deuteronomy to the board and demanded relief from duty to take my wife home and make her happy, for a year! Oh well.