“How to treat your spouse better”

LESSON SUMMARY:  Taught by Bishop Caldwell
Bishop Caldwell taught the combined Priesthood and Relief Society, 5th Sunday lesson today.  He entitled it “How to treat your spouse better”.  These are notes I took from the meeting.

Bishop started off by asking the class to talk about the differences between men and women.   He made a chart on the board that looked something like this:

(Understand that these are all generalizations, not the same for EVERY man and EVERY woman.)


WOMEN                                                               MEN                                  
Stronger                                                                                    Strong
More emotional                                                                        Less emotional
More gentle                                                                                    Less gentle
More verbal                                                                                    Less talkative
Make connections                                                                        Good at compartmentalizing
More Spiritual                                                                                    Spiritual
Good at multitasking                                                                        Single tasking
Women show love through                                                            Men show love through
            Kind words                                                                                    Physical touch
            Service
            Quality time
            Gifts
Use the present to understand the past                                    Use the present to help with future
Harder time forgiving                                                                        Forgive easily
Have need for friends in addition                                                Think their wife is their best friend
            to their husbands
Compare themselves to others, critical of self                        Generally think they are doing good          


The Bishop related the analogy of a mother and father who take their child to the park to play on the playground, and as the child is going off to play, what does the mother say?

“BE CAREFUL!”

And the Father follows it up with?

“HAVE FUN!”

So the question is, who is right?

They both are!  Together, they are both right.  However, alone, they are both wrong.  If the child always hears, only to be careful, he will never learn to have fun, and never know having fun is ok.  By the same token, if he only hears he should just have fun, he will never know how important it is to be careful and cautious.

It’s important that we let our spouses do their job, allow them to do their job.  Our loving Heavenly Father made us different.  We shouldn’t attack those differences, embrace them!

The Proclamation to the family says fathers and mothers are to be equal partners, but that we each have our God given responsibilities.  Allow and help each other fulfill those sacred obligations.

Isaiah 58 says that we will be judged the way we judge others.  That includes our spouse.  Treat your companion the way you want to be treated!