Rule Book or Relationship
IllustrationStory★★★★A COUPLE went for marriage counseling. Both the man and the woman carried a list with them. The man had taken a sheet of paper, drawn a line down the middle, and proceeded to write all the good things about his wife down one side of the paper and all of the bad things down the other side. The woman had done the same thing.
They pointed out to the counselor that they just couldn’t stay married because of the lists they had compiled. Both the man and the woman had a much longer list of negatives than positives for their spouse. Having tried everything from vacations to marriage retreats, the couple had come to this counselor as the last resort before going to get a divorce.
The counselor glanced over the lists noting some serious things and some not-so-serious things. To their shock, he tore them up right in front of them, pulled over his trash can, and threw in the lists. The man exclaimed, “What are you doing? Don’t you know how long it took us to make those lists?”
The counselor explained that the couple’s lists were useless because they examined the couple’s problem from the wrong end. “You are pursuing a rule book when you should be pursuing a relationship.”
God meant for life to be lived by relationship, not by rules.
The point
A marriage counselor tears up couples' pro/con lists about each other, explaining marriage should be about relationship, not rules.