I am sure you have heard someone say, “I learn something new every day.” I know this is absolutely true if you are living with an open heart. Life is constantly throwing us challenges, experiences, relationships, and changes in relationships that give us great opportunities to learn.
If you and your spouse are learning daily, you can capitalize on this daily. Since you are already learning, all you have to do is get skilled at sharing it. This is a great way to keep up with your spouse as he or she transforms over time.
In this exercise, face each other while doing the exercise and maintain eye contact. Have one person complete one of the following statements, then the other spouse complete another statement. Repeat this process once.
- Something I learned from God today was….
- Something I learned from you today was….
- Something I learned from others today was….
- Something I learned about myself today was….
If you use your spouse as an example, you must say something positive. Dan and Elly will be our example couple.
Dan: Something I learned from God today was that He listens to even my small prayers. I prayed about getting a break and the boss told me to go home early because he was seeing too much of me and laughed.
Elly: Something I learned about myself was that sometimes it’s hard to be honest. I had a girl ring up the wrong sandwich today at lunch and it was more than a dollar less than the one I ordered. When I pointed it out, she said, “Never mind, I’ll still give you the right sandwich.” I was tempted to leave it at that, but I asked her to make it right on the check anyway.
Dan: Something I learned from you was to be positive toward people. You do this so naturally. I tried it for three days at work on George, who’s always so negative. He actually smiled today and I thought that was really funny.
Elly: Something I learned from someone else today is that being quiet is sometimes better than speaking your mind. I was in a meeting at work and Stephanie shot off what she thought about the owner’s ideas. Well, he didn’t really like her bluntness. He corrected her in front of everybody and said to think before you give any feedback to ideas that take more than a minute to create.
It’s obvious how learning what your spouse is learning can help you stay connected.
