[This Guy Got Divorced And Said This About His Ex-Wife... And I Agree With Him.
Gerald Rogers got divorced after 16 years of marriage. Recently he wrote a eye-opening public confession on his blog... after I saw it, I'm totally with him. He writes:

''MARRIAGE ADVICE I WISH I WOULD HAVE HAD:

Obviously, I'm not a relationship expert. But there's something about my divorce being finalized this week that gives me perspective of things I wish I would have done different... After losing a woman that I loved, and a marriage of almost 16 years, here's the advice I wish I would have had...

1) Never stop courting.
Never stop dating. NEVER EVER take that woman for granted. When you asked her to marry you, you promised to be that man that would OWN HER HEART and to fiercely protect it. This is the most important and sacred treasure you will ever be entrusted with. SHE CHOSE YOU. Never forget that, and NEVER GET LAZY in your love.

2) PROTECT YOUR OWN HEART.
Just as you committed to being the protector of her heart, you must guard your own with the same vigilance. Love yourself fully, love the world openly, but there is a special place in your heart where no one must enter except for your wife. Keep that space always ready to receive her and invite her in, and refuse to let anyone or anything else enter there.

3) FALL IN LOVE OVER and OVER and OVER again.
You will constantly change. You're not the same people you were when you got married, and in five years you will not be the same person you are today. Change will come, and in that you have to re-choose each other everyday. SHE DOESN'T HAVE TO STAY WITH YOU, and if you don't take care of her heart, she may give that heart to someone else or seal you out completely, and you may never be able to get it back. Always fight to win her love just as you did when you were courting her.

4) ALWAYS SEE THE BEST in her.
Focus only on what you love. What you focus on will expand. If you focus on what bugs you, all you will see is reasons to be bugged. If you focus on what you love, you can't help but be consumed by love. Focus to the point where you can no longer see anything but love, and you know without a doubt that you are the luckiest man on earth to be have this woman as your wife.

5) IT'S NOT YOUR JOB TO CHANGE OR FIX HER...
Your job is to love her as she is with no expectation of her ever changing. And if she changes, love what she becomes, whether it's what you wanted or not.

6) TAKE FULL ACCOUNTABILITY for your own emotions:
It's not your wife's job to make you happy, and she CAN'T make you sad. You are responsible for finding your own happiness, and through that your joy will spill over into your relationship and your love.

7) NEVER BLAME your wife If YOU get frustrated or angry at her, it is only because it is triggering something inside of YOU. They are YOUR emotions, and your responsibility. When you feel those feelings take time to get present and to look within and understand what it is inside of YOU that is asking to be healed. You were attracted to this woman because she was the person best suited to trigger all of your childhood wounds in the most painful way so that you could heal them... when you heal yourself, you will no longer be triggered by her, and you will wonder why you ever were.

8) Allow your woman to JUST BE.
When she's sad or upset, it's not your job to fix it, it's your job to HOLD HER and let her know it's ok. Let her know that you hear her, and that she's important and that you are that pillar on which she can always lean. The feminine spirit is about change and emotion and like a storm her emotions will roll in and out, and as you remain strong and unjudging she will trust you and open her soul to you... DON'T RUN-AWAY WHEN SHE'S UPSET. Stand present and strong and let her know you aren't going anywhere. Listen to what she is really saying behind the words and emotion.

9) BE SILLY...
Don't take yourself so damn seriously. Laugh. And make her laugh. Laughter makes everything else easier.

10) FILL HER SOUL EVERYDAY...
Learn her love languages and the specific ways that she feels important and validated and CHERISHED. Ask her to create a list of 10 THINGS that make her feel loved and memorize those things and make it a priority everyday to make her feel like a queen.

11) BE PRESENT.
Give her not only your time, but your focus, your attention and your soul. Do whatever it takes to clear your head so that when you are with her you are fully WITH HER. Treat her as you would your most valuable client. She is.

12) BE WILLING TO TAKE HER SEXUALLY...
To carry her away in the power of your masculine presence, to consume her and devour her with your strength, and to penetrate her to the deepest levels of her soul. Let her melt into her feminine softness as she knows she can trust you fully.

13) DON'T BE AN IDIOT...
And don't be afraid of being one either. You will make mistakes and so will she. Try not to make too big of mistakes, and learn from the ones you do make. You're not supposed to be perfect, just try to not be too stupid.

14) GIVE HER SPACE...
The woman is so good at giving and giving, and sometimes she will need to be reminded to take time to nurture herself. Sometimes she will need to fly from your branches to go and find what feeds her soul, and if you give her that space she will come back with new songs to sing... (okay, getting a little too poetic here, but you get the point. Tell her to take time for herself, ESPECIALLY after you have kids. She needs that space to renew and get re-centered, and to find herself after she gets lost in serving you, the kids and the world.)

15) BE VULNERABLE...
You don't have to have it all together. Be willing to share your fears and feelings, and quick to acknowledge your mistakes.

16) BE FULLY TRANSPARENT.
If you want to have trust you must be willing to share EVERYTHING... Especially those things you don't want to share. It takes courage to fully love, to fully open your heart and let her in when you don't know i she will like what she finds... Part of that courage is allowing her to love you completely, your darkness as well as your light. DROP THE MASK... If you feel like you need to wear a mask around her, and show up perfect all the time, you will never experience the full dimension of what love can be.

17) NEVER STOP GROWING TOGETHER...
The stagnant pond breeds malaria, the flowing stream is always fresh and cool. Atrophy is the natural process when you stop working a muscle, just as it is if you stop working on your relationship. Find common goals, dreams and visions to work towards.

18) DON'T WORRY ABOUT MONEY.
Money is a game, find ways to work together as a team to win it. It never helps when teammates fight. Figure out ways to leverage both persons strength to win.

19) FORGIVE IMMEDIATELY and focus on the future rather than carrying weight from the past. Don't let your history hold you hostage. Holding onto past mistakes that either you or she makes, is like a heavy anchor to your marriage and will hold you back. FORGIVENESS IS FREEDOM. Cut the anchor loose and always choose love.

20) ALWAYS CHOOSE LOVE. ALWAYS CHOOSE LOVE. ALWAYS CHOOSE LOVE.
In the end, this is the only advice you need. If this is the guiding principle through which all your choices is governed, there is nothing that will threaten the happiness of your marriage. Love will always endure.

In the end MARRIAGE isn't about Happily ever after. It's about work. And a commitment to grow together and a willingness to continually invest in creating something that can endure eternity. Through that work, the happiness will come.

Marriage is life, and it will bring ups and downs. Embracing all of the cycles and learning to learn from and love each experience will bring the strength and perspective to keep building, one brick at a time.

These are lessons I learned the hard way. These are lessons I learned too late.

But these are lessons I am learning and committed in carrying forward. Truth is, I LOVED being married, and in time, I will get married again, and when I do, I will build it with a foundation that will endure any storm and any amount of time.

If you are reading this and find wisdom in my pain, share it those those young husbands whose hearts are still full of hope, and with those couples you may know who may have forgotten how to love. One of those men may be like I was, and in these hard earned lessons perhaps something will awaken in him and he will learn to be the man his lady has been waiting for.

The woman that told him 'I do', and trusted her life with him, has been waiting for this man to step up.

If you are reading this and your marriage isn't what you want it to be, take 100% responsibility for YOUR PART in marriage, regardless of where your spouse is at, and commit to applying these lessons while there is time.

MEN- THIS IS YOUR CHARGE: Commit to being an EPIC LOVER. There is no greater challenge, and no greater prize. Your woman deserves that from you.

Be the type of husband your wife can't help but brag about.''

 poppa G wrote:
Some of those are incredibly stupid.

feeder wrote:

 poppa G wrote:
Some of those are incredibly stupid.

Yes, but #7 is not. This is true for all relationships in life, not just with a spouse

 poppa G wrote:
Some of those are incredibly stupid.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

 poppa G wrote:
Some of those are incredibly stupid.

I take you aren't married.

Bullockist wrote:
Isorry to hear about T-Bone

feeder wrote:

 poppa G wrote:
Some of those are incredibly stupid.

Yes, but #7 is not. This is true for all relationships in life, not just with a spouse

 purplefood wrote:

feeder wrote:

 poppa G wrote:
Some of those are incredibly stupid.

Yes, but #7 is not. This is true for all relationships in life, not just with a spouse

Frankly I think #12 is the most applicable to everyday situations and all relationships...

 Ahtman wrote:

 purplefood wrote:

feeder wrote:

 poppa G wrote:
Some of those are incredibly stupid.

Yes, but #7 is not. This is true for all relationships in life, not just with a spouse

Frankly I think #12 is the most applicable to everyday situations and all relationships...

That is what I keep trying to tell the postal employee that delivers my mail.

 Ouze wrote:
Some of it is sound advice, but a lot of it is pants on head, like #7. 6 is pretty bad too. I would say, at least for me, the big ones are:

On the whole those this reads like a copy/paste straight from Cosmo and I agree, it was clearly written by a woman - a woman who seems to not realize marriage is supposed to be an equal partnership.

 HiveFleetPlastic wrote:
A lot of the early ones sound like good advice for all your relationships with everyone!

Some of the others are facepalm-inducing gender-essentialist nonsense. I don't think that was written by a woman for apparently the same reason some of you do - because some of the points come across as really condescending and patronising.

The #7 stuff about "you chose your partner to trigger your wounds" is dumb, but there's something to the idea of those wounds being there and being part of you, not your partner.

The thing I'm least sure about the whole piece is the idea that a marriage should properly last forever. It definitely can, but in a lot of cases I don't know that it should, and the idea that people should try to force it because it's some kind of ideal state is pretty harmful.

Bullockist wrote:

 HiveFleetPlastic wrote:
A lot of the early ones sound like good advice for all your relationships with everyone!

Some of the others are facepalm-inducing gender-essentialist nonsense. I don't think that was written by a woman for apparently the same reason some of you do - because some of the points come across as really condescending and patronising.

The #7 stuff about "you chose your partner to trigger your wounds" is dumb, but there's something to the idea of those wounds being there and being part of you, not your partner.

The thing I'm least sure about the whole piece is the idea that a marriage should properly last forever. It definitely can, but in a lot of cases I don't know that it should, and the idea that people should try to force it because it's some kind of ideal state is pretty harmful.

I'm thinking the idea behind this type of advice/thinking is not that you try to force it into an ideal state but more don't accept what you have as the best it can be and then go into the doom spiral marriage.

on #7 i agree with feeder completely. As counter intuitive ans self un-justifying as it is it is true. The only person who makes you angry is you, the only person who knows about the slight is you, the only person who has your viewpoint is you.Apart from people who are trying to wound each other out of spite , most times we get angry at others it has more to do with how we are feeling than what they did.

 trexmeyer wrote:
A lot of it, well at least the parts that aren't common sense, comes off as putting the women on a pedestal.

feeder wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
Some of it is sound advice, but a lot of it is pants on head, like #7. 6 is pretty bad too. I would say, at least for me, the big ones are:

On the whole those this reads like a copy/paste straight from Cosmo and I agree, it was clearly written by a woman - a woman who seems to not realize marriage is supposed to be an equal partnership.

The sooner you realize the only person that makes you mad is you, the sooner your life will get a whole lot easier. It's counter intuitive, I know, but it's true. Trust me.

Bullockist wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:

 purplefood wrote:

feeder wrote:

 poppa G wrote:
Some of those are incredibly stupid.

Yes, but #7 is not. This is true for all relationships in life, not just with a spouse

Frankly I think #12 is the most applicable to everyday situations and all relationships...

That is what I keep trying to tell the postal employee that delivers my mail.

You feth your postal worker? I must try this, maybe then it won't take 7 days to deliver something that should take 2 Really gives the phrase "going postal" a different bent.

 purplefood wrote:
My local post office might be-ahem-busy.
Can i email them?

 Ouze wrote:

feeder wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
Some of it is sound advice, but a lot of it is pants on head, like #7. 6 is pretty bad too. I would say, at least for me, the big ones are:

On the whole those this reads like a copy/paste straight from Cosmo and I agree, it was clearly written by a woman - a woman who seems to not realize marriage is supposed to be an equal partnership.

The sooner you realize the only person that makes you mad is you, the sooner your life will get a whole lot easier. It's counter intuitive, I know, but it's true. Trust me.

Isn't this sort of presuming that you never get mad for a legitimate reason, sort of? I mean i totally do not get what you are saying at all.

Hypothetical situation - You are the sole breadwinner; and your arrangement is that your wife is in charge of handling making payments for service X or whatever. She forgets to make a payment without a legitimate reason (i fell asleep, was too busy watching TV, something foolish like that) and now you owe a late fee on that something. It's wrong to be mad about this?

 Steve steveson wrote:
To me, someone who has been married for 10 years now, and has been through good times and bad, this boils down to 3 things:

Basic common sense
Marriage is not all roses and flowers
and then allot of gak that is either sexist or telling men to stay in abusive relationships.

 Seaward wrote:

 Steve steveson wrote:
To me, someone who has been married for 10 years now, and has been through good times and bad, this boils down to 3 things:

Basic common sense
Marriage is not all roses and flowers
and then allot of gak that is either sexist or telling men to stay in abusive relationships.

Out of pure idle curiosity, how long are we going to continue to insist that any failure to pretend there aren't significant differences in the way males and females operate is sexism?

"The feminine spirit is about change and emotion and like a storm her emotions will roll in and out,"