A few years ago I was listening to a Christian radio station. They were talking about marriage, and the speaker told this story:
There once was a wife that requested a meeting with her Pastor. “Pastor,” she said, “I am here for divorce counseling. I need to divorce my husband. He is mean and foul. He leaves a mess in our home. He is demanding, and I just can’t take it anymore. I work hard. He doesn’t even notice.”
The Pastor sat back in his chair, and he laid out a plan for the wife. He explained that in order to make her divorce the most successful she would need to do a few things first. He instructed her to go home and spend the next month doing everything that she could to make her husband happy. The wife should rub his back, make his favorite meal, and even put love letters in his lunch.
The wife snarled. “Why exactly would I do that if I intend to divorce? He treats me so poorly. Why should I even waste my time?”
The Pastor explained, “Well, don’t you want him to really miss you when you’re gone? If you do these things, then he will long for you after you leave him. He will realize that he has lost a wonderful wife. It is the perfect revenge for all of the years that he has mistreated you.”
The wife smiled. She left the Pastor’s office, and got started on her tasks as soon as she arrived home. She cleaned their home until it sparkled. She prepared his favorite dinner. She greeted him at the door with a smile and a kiss. The look of confusion on her husband’s face was priceless to her. Boy was she going to show him!
The second night she did the same thing, and she even served her husband his favorite dessert. Each day she worked a little bit harder. She began to light nice smelling candles to warm their home. His requests were her pleasure, and she was excited about exacting her revenge.
The month came to an end, and the Pastor pulled the wife aside after church, “So are you ready to meet with me so that we can complete the next step of your divorce?”
“Divorce?!” the wife exclaimed, “I don’t need that anymore!”
“You don’t?” the Pastor smiled.
“I don’t know what has gotten into him, but he has become such a great husband! Our marriage is better than it has ever been.” With that, she walked back to her husband, kissed his cheek, and exited the church.
While the Pastor’s initial advice was indeed strange, he knew the outcome all along. He was able to see what the wife could not, and he appealed to her in the only way that her hardened heart would be able to hear. What power that woman had to save her marriage without even knowing it.
Daily life can be overwhelming, and sometimes we’re tempted to think that we deserve better without realizing that our husbands deserve better, too. Perhaps we need to look at our marriage through the eyes of another and heed their advice.
Today’s Challenge:Give your husband what he deserves – regardless of the state of your marriage. Do that thing that he loves that you usually brush off. For each of us that will mean something different, but you can do it! |
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Today’s Challenger:
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