"Feminine Appeal"

My next assignment for premarital counseling is to read "Feminine Appeal" by Carolyn Mahaney.

While I was laying on the roof to soak up some sun, I was reading the first couple of chapters.

I highlighted a couple of passages when Mahaney talked about recognizing sin in yourself and how that affects your marriage. She said, "When we're not experiencing loving feelings toward our husbands, that's an alarm going off: ding, ding, ding. There may be sin that needs attention."

Usually when I don't have loving feelings toward Nate, I get absorbed in it and start thinking about all the things that are wrong with him. I can't say I've ever started examining myself and seeing what is wrong with me that I am feeling that way.

"When we see our husbands as sinners like ourselves - sinners in need of God's grace and mercy - it strips away any intolerant, critical or demanding attitude we may be tempted to have," she said.

Again, life and relationships are all the way that we look at things. Mahaney mentioned another author who said that even if our mate is only 80 percent, that we should concentrate on the 80 percent and not waste our lives trying to fix the other 20.