A few weeks ago, I found myself seated at a wedding reception with complete strangers. I was confused. We knew lots of people at this wedding, and some of our closest friends were just two seats away at the same round table. But the seating was assigned so I covered my surprise and greeted the strangers, a husband and wife pair.
Within minutes, it felt like I had known her my whole life. What marriage advice do you have for us? Anyone who actually asks for marriage advice has probably heard all of this. And then I saw the answer right before me. After Ben and I have one of those big serious talks concluding with different ways we can both do better, I take a few minutes to note what I need to do differently or do better and email it to myself, scheduling it to send a week later. And whenever new things need to be added to the list, I just reply to myself and add it on.
For example, the first thing I have on there is a reminder to NOT bring up serious, heavy stuff to talk about with Ben right before bed.
Even now I have to pause myself once in a while and remind myself to wait until tomorrow. We continued to share and chat, and had a really fun time getting to know each other and the other guests at our table later that night. It turns out we had a lot more in common than I had originally thought, and had so many points of connection that I was grateful for the chance to unexpectedly meet and make new friends!
I was glad to be able to share this tip with this sweet new friend. No matter how different our personalities and issues are, we could all use a little accountability as we strive to be the better versions of ourselves.
