All right...I admit it! Like many men I know, I make a terrific lover but a terrible husband! This truth dawned upon me slowly over my marriage years. And it wasn't the fault of my better half! She didn't get fat, or stopped cooking for me, or stopped caring for our children, for our home, or for me! No...it was I who changed--not my faithful wife. And I don't mean I stopped loving my wife. I didn't fall out of love with her--I fell in love with myself! I began thinking more about what interested me (sports, politics, cars, etc.), and less about what made my wife happy. And I slipped into lazy habits--socially, physically, and emotionally! More importantly, I pushed out of my memory what had first attracted me to my wife. I no longer counted as important what first was most important to me about her--her special beauty and her need to be protected from outside forces (bad company, drugs, poor health habits, esteem-lowering environment at school and at home). I took for granted, after several years of marriage , that I had earned a gold star as a great husband! I didn't need to compliment her daily on her looks, I thought, even though she had grown even more beautiful over the years! I didn't realize she still needed protection, not from outside forces now, but from inside forces (kids, housework, homemaking duties, a lazy husband, etc.)! So this is the advice I'm passing on to you married guys out there! Keep remembering what attrracted you to your wife in the first place. And, Rule #1, regardless of age, a man, if he doesn't fall into lazy habits, can always find ways to keep happy, the one woman whose love he needs!
