Well, today’s Family Minute was about communication within the marriage. And, to the men out there, if you’ve been married for any length of time, then you know just how important it is to know how your wife thinks. The truth is that each and every one of us is unique; each of us thinks uniquely and differently – and that is the case between my wife, Susan, and I. When I speak, I speak very literally. I’m a “word-smith.” I hang on to every single word – every sing word is important to me. This may be because of genetics or it could be that I’m a recovering attorney. I’ve asked my wife, Susan, to do a bit of guest blogging on this topic today. I’ll let her take it from here:
While every word is extremely important to my husband, Mark – every word is not important to me. I think “big vision” and “big picture” so I’m describing an entire scene. All that to say, while I’m talking, this one little word I may have said (that Mark is clinging to) may have nothing to do with what I’m really talking about. Since this topic is about what a man’s wife thinks, I would ask all the husbands out there to ask themselves one question before you even start guessing what she’s talking about – “Does she just want me to listen to her vent, or is she asking me to do something?” Most of the time, as wives, we need our husbands to just listen to us vent every once in awhile – we’re not always coming to you to fix things; we just want you to listen. If you know this from the outset, you won’t be thinking the whole time she’s talking about what you should be doing and then coming up with solutions that she really never set out to get. The answer and response (to my venting) that I would love to receive is, “Honey, I’m so sorry that happened today.” See, there was no solution or game plan, just sympathy.
Well, I appreciate Susan taking the time to let us into the way wives think a little bit more. I can obviously see areas of communication that I need to work on. This has been very helpful to me! As always, I hope what you find here is helpful to you too.
Until next time,
Mark
