On Mother's Day I compared notes with a friend of mine about our mother's day experience. Her husband had bought some presents and was getting ready to cook dinner for her. I thought that sounded like a nice mother's day.
Then, I happened to chat with this friend's husband a few minutes later. He was feeling horrible, because he had forgotten to fix breakfast for his wife. She had had to make it. He was nervous about making dinner, wondering if he'd give anybody food poisoning. I laughed at that part. He was totally focused on helping his wife have a good day, even though it hadn't started great.
This couple has been married close to 30 years. So, I thought maybe I could learn something from them. They'd had the same experience, but they looked at it differently. The husband was recognizing his mistake with breakfast and trying to reconcile by making the rest of the day better. The wife had chosen to look at the positive side of the day, by focusing on what could happen, instead of what did not happen. The husband had bought the presents ahead of time and was willing to tackle the dinner that he really did not feel confident about, just because he thought his wife would like it. I hope their special day ended well.
It seems to me that if we look for the positive things our spouse is doing and sacrifice our comfort zone to help our spouse, then hopefully our marriage can last 30 years and still be strong.
