Something to think about..... sorry it's been a while :) love you girls!

I wrote recently about 1 Thing you should not do in Marriage.
It flew around facebook and twitter and pinterest… striking a cord with many women.
So, I asked my husband, “What is your 1 thing you shouldn’t do in marriage? Something you would tell husbands?”

He thought about it for a second.
Jokingly, he looked at me with that huge grin, “Well I know the 1 thing you SHOULD do in marriage…”
I hit his shoulder and said, “Be serious.”
He was.
That’s why I don’t have HIM post here on the blog… #wink
“Come on… what is 1 Thing you shouldn’t do?”
He was quiet for a few minutes.
“Well, I don’t think couples should brood about things. If something is bothering you or something needs to be talked about, do it. Be open. Be honest.”
I nodded and agreed.
He went on, “When you are silent and brooding, it doesn’t just hurt the other person. It hurts you both.”
As he was talking I thought about this picture.

When I was recently looking through our couples pictures for the Happy Wives Club posts, I saw this one.
I think it is actually a little funny. Because we never look that way. Very rarely is Jeremy not smiling.
But sometimes in marriage, things can get rough. And it can be easy to withdraw, close in and stop talking.
Hurt, heartbreak, breaking trust, feelings of inadequacy, frustration, anger… all things that naturally cause us to shut down.
Looking at this picture showed me how we look when we are silent. Unsmiling. Quiet. Brooding.
We don’t look like ourselves.
We don’t show joy.
We don’t show love.
Some very good reasons not to brood over things. Very good reasons to connect, talk, share in openness and honesty together.
Even the hard conversations.
Even the things that seem uncomfortable.
Don’t let silence hurt your marriage.
Because this is a much better picture of the joy couples have when they decide that brooding is one thing they shouldn’t do.