“I wish he would pick up his socks.  I’m just going to leave them there and see how many he leaves lying around.”

“Don’t you think, though, that every time you see those socks, you’ll just get more aggravated?”

“Probably.”

“What would happen if you just go the extra distance and help him out?”

“Well, then he’ll never learn to pick up his socks himself.”

“That may be true, but don’t you think if he hasn’t learned it after all these years he never will?   Maybe you’ll be happier if you both just work together on each other’s short-comings.”

Ω

So many times in relationships, we look to the other person to work on their shortcomings.   That may be good for parents to help teach their children, but may not work so well with your mate.

When we constantly find shortcomings in our mate, even though we may be 100% “right,” it is not doing anything to strengthen the relationship.   There are things that we are just not going to teach one another.  For whatever reason, even if the man in the story above wants to pick up his socks, he just might not see them.

Relationships are not about being “right.”   The strongest relationships are a team!  They play together, work together, cry together and laugh together.  They understand and ACCEPT each other’s shortcomings!  They get past the need to criticize and accept the wholeness of the other person.

InspiraCard

When we criticize we are putting ourselves in a superior position over someone else.  At some point in our lives, we need to finally just accept our mate for all of their strengths as well as what we perceive as “weaknesses.”

Written Thu, Jan 29, 2015 8:08 – 8:14 AM MST