Spouse Praising … not Bashing

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How many of us have ever been involved with or overheard a gripe-fest about spouses? 

“I can’t believe what ‘Peter’ did the other night!  He didn’t come home until 10:00 and then when he did come home he went out again with his buddies.  Does he forget that he has a wife and kids?”

or what about …

“‘Chad’ is so unhelpful.  Why doesn’t he just know when I need help cleaning the house?  All he ever does is sit there and watch TV or play video games.  Can’t he see I am going crazy trying to get everything done.  I am always doing stuff for him.  Why won’t he ever do anything for me?”

This is such a common practice in today’s world.  It seems like wives are constantly bashing on their husbands and complaining about everything they do wrong and then in turn you hear husbands making fun of their wives for shopping too much, changing their mind too often, and the list can go on and on.  This behavior really irks me because I think marriage is a wonderful thing.  Yes, marriage is a lot of hard work because you are taking two completely different people who have their own paradigms on life and creating a new unit for them to live in together.  Compromise, change, effective communication, forgiveness, not being easily-offended and giving the benefit of the doubt are just a few things that need to be a constant part of the picture.  [Yes, I know I still need to improve upon many of those myself : ) !!] But marriage can be a wonderful institution!  It is so gratifying to have someone to share your entire life with!

So anyway, the whole reason I am going off on this is because I would like to change this.  I know I am only one person, but it has to start somewhere.  What I would like to do is instead of always participating in gripe-fests about our spouses (or boyfriends or girlfriends), I thought it would be neat to start participating in praise-fests for them.  After all, what better way is there to improve a relationship than to focus on the good things about it?  Besides which, there are so many things that I need to be improving in my own life, so what gives me the right and authority to complain about someone else?

So here is my praise.  I woke up at 4:51 this morning feeling completely sick to my stomach … and no I am not expecting!  My husband and I enjoyed our food from The Cheesecake Factory a little too much last night. Anyway, I was up for awhile being sick and then I finally went back to bed about 6:00.  I knew I had to get up soon to get my daughter ready for Kindergarten, but I didn’t have the strength or energy.  Here enters the husband.  Instead of waking me up when the kids got up, he let me sleep in.  He fed both kids, unloaded the dishwasher, helped get the kids dressed, changed the 20 month old son’s diaper and then stayed home for an extra few hours this morning to see if I needed anything else … and he did all of this without my asking!  

I am so grateful I married someone who takes an equal part in making our marriage great!  So go ahead and let the praise roll forth … 

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