分享一下以前念書時讀到的幾篇 他山之石: ============================ To marriage, Still many couples stay together in spite of demanding jobs, big mortgages, and parental pressures. How? While all partners face inevitable soars and slumps at variouspoints in their relationships, those who survive learn how to NAVIGATE them successfully
(Four)Things I used to hate about you by Phil Callaway Six months before my wedding day, an elderly friend tapped my shoulder in the post office and offered me some free advice. “Ramona’s lovely girl.” he said. ”she deserves a good husband. Marry her before she finds one.” Then he whispered a curious thing: “you want a happy marriage?” Of course I did. “When the things that attracted you to her start to drive you apart,” he said, smiling,” find a way to reverse the process.” I’ve been thinking about his advice for many years, and it’s starting to make sense. When Ramona and I were dating, I loved the way she took life slowly. She taught me to stop and taste the strawberries. But three months after our honeymoon, as I waited in the car, resisting the urge to honk, I knew exactly what he meant. At one point I had considered nailing a list of 95 irritations to the bathroom door, something Martin Luther may have done to his wife. Only four came to mind: 1.Your sense of humor is warped. The funniest thing I did this week was hit my head on a cupboard door. You laughed. Please do not laugh when you read this. 2.You are kind to telemarketer. 3.My wool sweater is missing. The one I got for my 17th birthday. 4.I love to be on time. You do not. Meet me in the living room at 8p.m. sharp, and we’ll talk about this. Thankfully, I restrained from posting the list and considered the elderly man’s advice to “reverse the process”. Now after 25 years of marriage, I’ve learned that if my wife and I were the same, we’d be in trouble. If we kept all my wool sweaters, we’d need 13 U-Haul each time we moved. Her kindness to telemarketer is the same kindness that first drew me to her. Thankfully, it has tempered with time. She now offers a polite, “No thanks” followed by a click. Or she says, “Here, I’ll let you talk to my husband.” I’ve asked her to meet me in the living room at 8 p.m. sharp to talk about this.
Phil and his wife, Ramona, just celebrated their 25th anniversary. Phil was on time. ===============================
Cooking is not my forte. My kids rave about my wife’s cooking, but they remind me of my culinary skills whenever it’s my turn to cook. (Of course they are only so many ways to serve K.D.) it may sting a little, but you know, I don’t get bent out of shape over my failure at that particular parenting task. Gourmet cooking is low on my list of parenting priorities. What is the most important task in parenting? Sure, giving your kids guidance and providing for them is important. But the greatest gift we can give our kids is love. A scholar once asked Jesus what the most important thing in life is? “The most important one.” answered Jesus,” is this…..’ love the lord your god with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength’ the second is this:’ love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no greater commandment than these.’ Jesus nailed down the bottom lines of life- loving god, and then loving our neighbor. And who is our closest neighbor? Could it be the child in next bedroom? or the kid sitting in your family room with video game controller in his hands? How about that teenager who just dinged up your car? The challenge with loving these around us is that communicating “ I love you, and I care” is no simple task. If I really want to communicate love to my family, should I only use the words I am comfortable using? Of course not. If I expect to be heard or understood, I need to discover methods of expressing love to them in ways that they recognize. Some feel loved when you hug them. Others feel loved when you give them your time or help them with their homework. Each of our four children senses love differently. What makes your children feel really loved? We can do everything else right, but if we failed to express love, we failed miserably. The consequeces of feeling unloved haunt people with their whole lives. Kids live at home with their families for only a short period of time. I’d like to think about that when our kids leave the nest, they’ll say something like” mom and dad had their quirks, but they really loved me.” In fact, kids will forgive a lot of parenting mistakes as long as they know that we have done our very best at loving them. I may be a lousy cook, but I know for sure that I do love my kids.