It is also good for a husband to study his wife so that he will know how to live with her. The most important thing people who are newly engaged should do is to positively study themselves so that they will know how to build a good relationship with each other.
Mind you, I used the word ‘positively study’ yourselves and not negatively study yourselves. Negatively studying your partner will make you keep seeing faults and weaknesses, which you cannot use to build a good relationship. But when you positively study your partner, your attention will be focused on how to live with the weaknesses and build up your partner out of those weaknesses.Â
This was exactly what a man did some years ago. When he got engaged to his lady, he discovered that she is a sympathy seeker. She so much enjoyed it when people tell her ‘sorry,’ even if the tiniest drop of water should drop on her shoe or a corner of her dress that is not easily noticed. But instead of this man calling off the relationship like some other men would have done, he went on to wed her.Â
He was, however, determined to lovingly and powerfully change her because he saw that aside from this emotional weakness of hers, she would make a very good wife in almost every other area.
Sometime after their wedding, the woman came up with some sympathy-seeking tears. She was shocked when her husband told her that he was not going to sympathise with her. He told her that he was not going to tell her ‘sorry’ over an issue that ordinarily the word ‘sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry’ was the only medicine that could heal her very fragile emotions. From that day, the man said ‘sorry’ and sympathised when it was actually needed. But he deliberately hardened his heart and would not tell her ‘sorry,’ when he felt that she was about to resurrect one of her sympathy-seeking techniques. Thank God she got the message and began to grudgingly adjust.
She was used to having her way through sympathy and tears, and some people live this way. Sympathy-seeking does not help any relationship grow. When your spouse, beloved children or friend uses his/her tears or sympathy or pity party to want to make you meet his or her demand, lovingly but firmly tell the person that you love him or her, but would never grant such a request.
A woman threatened moving out of her matrimonial home, but her hitherto soft husband whom we have counselled, stood his ground lovingly (but not pleadingly) and the woman was surprised and started respecting her husband.
When you notice traits of this sort, do not allow your happiness to depend on that person’s happiness. Some people will wear an unhappy look just because their demands were not met. Let them know that you genuinely love them, but you will not join them on their sympathy-seeking journey.
The greatest help you can render to yourself is to make a choice to be happy in spite of your problems and not for people to feel sorry for you in order to meet your needs. It is manipulation of people’s feelings. It does not make you grow emotionally. Do you have a spouse that acts this way? Show them how much you love them, but lovingly teach them to be responsible emotionally.Â
We should not be like an emotionally lazy king Saul, who said in first Samuel 22:8 ‘there is none of you that is sorry for me.’ Love you.
