Coming Home
Coming home can be the best part of your day!
Your work is over, and you get to now focus on the things you want to focus on: your wife and your family.
No matter who gets home first, you should always prepare for the arrival of your spouse.
When you come in the door, drop your stuff and acknowledge your wife. Don’t go into the office and put your things down and start your routine.
Acknowledge her important place in your life!
I am very guilty of trying to put my things down first, and I don’t always do a great job of saying hello and having some “us” time. That is a mistake on my part… this is important!
You both labor throughout the day separate from each other. Now you are able to finally be with the one you love!
If you are the first one home, when your wife comes in, stop what you’re doing. Go to the door and greet her.
This communicates your love for her. If you have kids, it is also a great example for them!
You are about to start an evening together. Make that first moment a capstone of your days.
When You’re In A Drought, Turn on the Sprinkler
There will be dry days.
Not just outside, but inside.
There will be days, perhaps even weeks or months where you feel that you’ve lost your flare. Perhaps you’ll feel that way about your marriage or maybe it will be your faith walk.
There is a perfect solution to every drought.
Turn on the sprinkler.
You have the ability to shift your mental focus. You have the ability to change the game.
When you’re in a time of drought, figure out what your main negative emotion is and push the opposite of it, hard.
If you feel alone and separated from you wife, go cuddle with her.
If you feel like you’re not getting anything out of your prayer life, change the routine.
You are the only variable that you can control. Don’t wait for a solution to magically present itself. You never know when the sky is going to cooperate.
Be the rain.
Avoid the Dangers of the Internet
The internet is awesome.
With the internet, you are able to connect with people in ways never before possible.
Growing up, my dad was in the military. Every year or two, we’d move. I would have really great friendships that would end because we were no longer able to communicate.
I graduated from college three years ago and still connect with my friends on a daily basis!
This is a blessing. It is a blessing to be able to get the best information on any subject, to maintain bonds of friendship, and to “feel” close to your family. It is a blessing to share ultrasound photos of your first child to your family 700 miles away.
As a husband, the internet is also a huge liability.
Here’s why.
Technology is a double edged sword. It can inform, but it can also destroy. According to an article in the New York Post, the word “Facebook” appeared in 1/3 of divorce filings in the United States. Affairs both physical and emotional are easier than ever to wander into.
It is all so innocent. Reconnecting with a friend from high school who you had a thing with can be fun. And that’s where the danger is. Fun turns into emotional infidelity and beyond that, maybe physical infidelity. The internet can be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Here is how I have dealt with this potential threat:
• I don’t use technologies that can easily lead to sexting (ex. Snapchat)
• I severely limit my time on Facebook, and typically only use it when my wife is home
• I have clear boundaries with what types of communication and humor are appropriate, especially in text messages
I’m not batting .1000, but I have a plan. The best way to defeat a threat is to eliminate it’s potential. You wouldn’t pull a Ron Swanson and store your oily rags over your wood burning stove.
Bottom line, remember that the internet can exaggerate reality. You chose your wife for a reason, well, hopefully more than one. Keep those reasons in mind. See the potential for disaster and avoid the possibility.
Happiness: Width vs. Depth
So, you’re considering getting married?
You are all excited about your potential future with this woman. You are reveling in the feeling when one of your bum friends comes up to you and ruins your day. “How can you be with just one person for your whole life?”
It’s a common objection. After all, we are a consumer generation. We consume commodities and sadly, people.
When you’re an eligible bachelor, you are a lion. You are tearing through the jungle of love chasing anything that moves. You enjoy the thrill of the chase while your mane flutters in the wind.
The game is fun, there’s no denying that). You have a young lady in mind and you must play your cards right to secure that first date.
But how do you keep that first date feeling going 10 years into a marriage? The chase is over.
The problem is with your thinking. You are confusing the width and depth of happiness.
When you’re on the prowl, you’re securing a shallow level of happiness. Shallow doesn’t mean bad. After all, a good thing is good only in moderation. Trying to achieve a shallow level of happiness is an appropriate place to be on the first few dates.
If you think you’re going to experience the same levels of excitement in your married life, you are truly setting your marriage up for failure.
Dating is a short game. Marriage is a long game.
While dating, you are in one phase of life: young(ish), bachelor, no kids.
While married, you pass through multiple phases of life: young and no kids, first time parent, multi-child family, empty-nesters, grandparent.
In marriage, you don’t seek the shallow happiness, you go deeper. Your joy is found in the life you build with your wife for your family. Your joy comes from getting to know someone exclusively. That continual shared experience is what drives your happiness.
There will be shallow level happiness in marriage. But it is not what you are going for. Deep happiness (aka joy) is the sweet spot of marriage.
Enjoy the bachelor life while you are in that state. When you pledge your love to a woman on your wedding day, turn off the consumer mentality and start to dig deeper.
Going to Mass Together
Going to Mass as a family is important.
As a married couple, together you form a domestic Church. The center of your family’s life is the Eucharist. The Church asks us to attend Mass every weekend not for Her benefit, but for our own.
I once heard it said that we put more faith in Tylenol than we do in the Eucharist. As the priest explained, when we take Tylenol, we expect something to happen. When we receive the Eucharist, we almost act as if nothing at all has happened.
But something did happen. Something amazing happened. You became a living Tabernacle. You received Christ into you, Body, Soul, Blood, and Divinity. You then carried Him out into the world.
There are graces that come with the Eucharist, too. Venial sins are forgiven. Our Lord preserves us from mortal sins through the Eucharist. (CCC 1416) Beyond that, our marriage is strengthened.
When we approach our Lord in the Mass, we should always approach Him with our spouse, whenever possible, and with our family. We need those graces to be the best man we can be.
Make sure that Mass is the pinnacle of your week and that you share it with your spouse.
Marriage: The Ultimate Team Sport
Being married is like being on a game show.
You have chosen a partner with whom you will compete against any number of external challenges and obstacles.
Marriage is the ultimate team sport. You and your spouse will need to accomplish, at a minimum, the following: maintain financial solvency, balance work and life, maintain a household, achieve adequate nutrition, further careers, and perhaps raise a few more humans along the way.
It’s fun. It really is. You get to create something totally your own, a family. The traditions, past times, activities, cuisine, decor, it is all up to the both of you.
There will be some awesome trips, some fabulous activities and neat people along the way, but there will also be struggles. There will be growing pains and sufferings.
The bottom line is that everything you do, you do as a team.
Choose your teammate wisely.
You Must Decrease
Men usually don’t like to be humble. We can see humility as a weakness. That is foolish of us.
The times when you get into trouble, when there is strife in your relationships, those are the times when you are focused too much on yourself. When we make our lives all about us, we can easily start to sin. Greed, lust, pride, and gluttony become all too easy.
When you are married, the challenge is elevated. You promised to love and protect your wife. Along with that promise, you agreed to be the head of your household, the model of the Christian Life. You agreed to step into the shoes of St. Joseph, with little hope of ever filling them.
The perfect antidote to this pride is to make your life about your wife. Instead of watching what you want to watch, offer to view one of her shows. Instead of insisting on her doing her chores all the time, why don’t you take care of them? Despite what you may think, some men have been successful at operating a washing machine and folding clothes.
The point is this. If you make your marriage about your wife, and she makes it about you, everyone will be taken care of. Even if this is a priority to you and not to her, your marriage will still be better with one less person only looking out only for themselves.
The same is true with the Spiritual life. Pope Francis recently was talking about social climbers in the Church. These are individuals who seek influence and power by being “promoted” to various positions in the Church. Pope Francis asked why they are trying to steal the glory that is due solely to Christ. That is true for us in our families. Christ has won the victory, why should we try to move in on it?
To quote the Gospel of St. John, “He must increase; I must decrease.” (Jn 3:30)
Family Merging
When you get married, you become something totally new.
Two worlds, two families, two long lines of rich tradition must now form a unique hybrid. It is the opportunity for you and your spouse to create something that is truly your own. However, you should proceed with caution.
For both spouses, there are elements of life that must be preserved. The important elements that much be preserved depends on the person. For me, a big element was food. I like most kinds of food, but I can still be picky. It was important that I was eating recipes that I was accustomed to in order to feel “normal.” For you, it may be other elements such as household decor, time of Mass on Sundays, holiday plans and traditions.
The early days of your marriage are the most precarious. You are two people who may be used to living on your own for some time, trying to get back into the routine of living in community. That means that you might not be able to leave your clothes piled on the bed anymore. You must be sensitive to the wants, needs, and desires of your spouse.
The best way to merge two families is communication. Sharing what is important and what you value with your spouse can make it easier for them to understand your vision for your life together. Listening to your spouse’s sharing can do the same for you.
There are two things that will make your life easier:
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Be open to new ways of doing things
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Be slow to judgement on new things
Your spouse wants to invite you into their very personal family traditions and you want to do the same. The worst thing you could do is refuse to participate. You may like their traditions more than your own, or you both together might develop a fun hybrid. This can go a long way in the emotional bonding that will need to take place in the building of the foundation of your marriage.
Second, be slow to judgement on new things. As humans, we don’t like change. However, when we put up barriers, we close off the possibility of us getting to enjoy something new. Take your time, understand the tradition, and enjoy the discovery process.
Merging families isn’t easy, but at the end of the process, you will both have a deeper and richer unique set of family traditions that your children will enjoy all the days of their lives.
You Define Your Success
Success is the currency that we all chase. No matter what we do, we seek success.
The tricky thing with success is that there isn’t a clear definition. There is no universal definition of success. We know it when we see it, but we can’t fully articulate it.
When I started writing, I spent a considerable amount of time trying to define what success in my writing looked like. After studying and pondering this question, I came to the following conclusion. It is wise to define success based on variables that you can control.
When we define ourselves as successful measuring with or using variables that we cannot completely control, we deny ourselves the right to be happy. We are happy when we have reached a level of success.
If I told myself that I’ll be a success when I play in my first Major League Baseball game, I may never make my mark. I could help 10,000 people, revolutionize myself, be the best husband, but still consider myself a failure. I can’t control the variable of being called up to the Big Leagues.
However, if I define myself as successful when my family’s needs are taken care of, my wife is my number one priority, and I always apply myself fully to whatever I’m doing, then success is attainable.
That is not to say that you should make it easy. You can’t lie to yourself. You can’t completely fool yourself. Make it challenging, make it a behavior that must be done consistently over time. But make it attainable.
Stop using other people’s definition of success. Set goals, make them reachable, and pursue them relentlessly.
Use Your Work to Evangelize
The other day I was in a one-on-one meeting with a local business owner. I met him through my wife. We had a great meeting, one of the most diverse of my career.
He did not grow up Catholic, and at one point, he considered being a missionary or pastor. He later decided to instead go into business. He named his company a markedly Catholic name.
I asked him a simple question that led to a profound revelation: Do you use the name of your company as a starting point for evangelization?
Today, many do not consider their work holy. We think that the only holy jobs are those in direct parish ministry. But we are all called to evangelize the world! The laity, working in concert with those in the clerical life, can reach the greatest number of people.
Your work is meant to be an opportunity to evangelize. I don’t mean that you should be quoting the Bible in every meeting or on Monday morning tell everyone that your weekend was “Eucharistic.” In fact, I don’t think you even need to initiate the conversation.
Your opportunities to evangelize often come to you. Other people will initiate the conversation. How many times have people complained to you about the Church, or asked you about the new Pope? How many times have you heard someone misquoting Church teaching or wonder aloud about a particular tradition? These are the moments for us to shine.
What do we do instead? We shy away. We change the subject. Wrong.
The great thing about these instances is that the ice has been broken. You don’t have to figure out a clever segue into the subject. They’ve teed up the ball and you just have to take a shot.
The next time you’re at work and your Catholic faith comes up, use it as an opportunity to inform or defend. You’ll be glad you did.