The Real Trick To Keeping Peace in Your Marriage

Let me tell you a quick story about something that happened about two weeks after I got married… and what you can learn from it. It may help you find the real trick to keeping peace in your marriage.

Describing a “Marriage Saver”

A Surfacing Problem

I didn’t notice it much at first, but after brushing my teeth for fourteen days, I realized my wife had a habit of squeezing the toothpaste tube in the middle. I always squeezed it from the bottom.

A toothpaste tube squeezed in the middle
We Needed a Marriage Saver

My theory was that you could get more out of the tube by getting it all from the bottom and working your way to the top.

Rhonda evidently was not enlightened.

I told her about my preference, but it didn’t really seem to make much difference.

I also found that she wanted the roll of toilet paper to hang down the front instead of hanging down the back.

I didn’t really care, just as long as the roll was there. So, at least I didn’t compound the problem.

The modern toothpaste manufacturers have helped many marriages because the plastic tube bounces back into shape pretty easily. Not so, when we first got married. The toothpaste tubes back then seemed to be sort of a flexible metallic material that looked like stiff aluminum foil underneath the paint. They just stayed in whatever shapes you left them after the squeeze. I have to admit it really frustrated me.

A Funny Answer for Keeping Peace in Your Marriage

A few years later, one of our cousins got us a Christmas present that was called a “Marriage Saver.”

It looked kind of like a clothespin. You attached it to the bottom of the toothpaste tube, and rolled it up as you continued to use it. I liked it because it was basically following my preference. Rhonda went along with it.

The gift was sort of a joke, but I have surveyed many audiences during marriage seminars, and they seem be about half and half on the preferences of which way you should squeeze the toothpaste tube, or how you position the toilet paper rolls.

A Good Take Away

The thing I really want you to take away from this is: Sometimes we all need to realize that husbands and wives do have different preferences, and they need to work through how they will handle them. Learning to handle these differences can lead to the real trick to keeping peace in your marriage.

However what this means to you in your marriage is we all need to realize that some of our preferences don’t amount to as much as we think they do.

You may have discovered some differences of opinion in your marriage. So here’s your next step as it relates to what I just shared: If you really want harmony in your marriage, buy the book, From Mountains to Molehills, so you can overcome and celebrate your differences in marriage.

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2 Replies to “The Real Trick To Keeping Peace in Your Marriage”

  1. Karla has false teeth so we never had your discussion. I think your wrong about toilet paper. Definitely should come over the top. Karla puts it on the bottom. I just change it and don’t say anything.

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