I love Mexican food.

If given the opportunity to choose where to eat out, 9 times out of 10, I’ll choose Mexican. I love Charro beans and Mexican rice. I’m a connoisseur of Chile Relleno. Guacamole and queso both make my heart sing. But, above all, I love – ADORE – chips and salsa. It provides the perfect combination of flavors and textures, and to my mind, is very near impossible to stop eating.

For years, Kevin and I have shown our love for each other by offering up the best chip out of the bowl to the other. Not just any chip, mind you, but the ones where several chips are wrapped up and folding into each other, creating a multi-layered effect that holds extra salsa or queso or guacamole. One that looks like this:

Without a word, the one who finds it selflessly hands it over to the other, even though we both love them. We used to feign martyrdom when we did it, making a big deal of what treasure we were giving up for the other, but now it’s just a quiet gift, without fanfare…a gift that says “I’m putting you before myself.”

Yes, I realize it’s kind of silly, but I’ve found over the years that it’s the little things like this, the small concessions, the tiny sacrifices that put the other first, which help cement a marriage. If you’re in the habit of giving when it comes to the little things, it’s a lot easier to handle the sacrifices required when the bigger things come calling. Like the chip itself, we ebb and flow together, folding in and out of each other, and are able to handle a lot more of a load together, than we can apart. After all, two rigid chips can’t stick together as one, can they? They have to bend to the other.

I find myself thankful today, and everyday, for a husband who serves me up an endless bowl of chips and love, always putting me above himself.

And, if I’m to be completely honest, I’m also thankful for the creator of the tortilla, and the subsequent inventor of the chip.

And I’m a little hungry.

“If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.” Philippians 2:1-4 MSG

“Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.” Romans 12:9-10 MSG