GOING BACK TO BASICS

"The difference between courtship and marriage is the difference between the picture in the seed catalog and what comes up..."


One of the books I read illustrates the recipe of marriage... It is much like making an oatmeal cookies. The success or failure depends entirely on what you put into it. Leave out an ingredient or use too little of it, and it's just not right. Here are some ingredients I learned in developing a recipe for marriage:

***MIXING BOWL OF FAITH

***FLOUR OF COMMITMENT - in baking, nothing is more basic than a flour, and in marriage-
nothing is more fundamental than commitment.

***OIL OF COMMUNICATION - effective communication is the mutual exchange of ideas, thoughts, attitudes, information and feelings. It is said to be the prerequisite to real love, and without it- love withers and dies.

***ADD THE INGREDIENT OF LOVE - in tennis, love means nothing but in marriage, it means everything.

***NEEDS THE BAKING POWDER OF FORGIVENESS

***ADD THE EGGS OF MEETING EACH OTHER'S NEEDS - in baking, eggs bind the ingredients together. In marriage, meeting each other's needs keeps temptation away, and adds joy to a relationship.

***A SPRINKLING OF HUMOR & MORE THAN A DASH OF UNDERSTANDING - this is so-called the seasoning in marriage. The kind that enables us to laugh at ourselves, our failures and our foibles...