One Marriage or Seventeen?

I knew a woman who had been married 6 times.  Each husband was very different and the reasons for each following divorce seemed to be the antithesis of the one prior.  One man was too poor, the other became too sick, one ran off with his secretary.  Being someone who myself has been married more than once, I thought, “am I on the six-weddings train?”

I also have a friend who has recently married for the first time.  She is in her thirties, successful and is someone I’ve always described as “having the looks of a Victoria’s Secret model.”  When I called her a few months after her wedding to see how marital bliss was treating her, she replied, “I don’t know why people do this (marriage).  It sucks!”  I couldn’t help laughing because I knew she had never lived with a man she was involved with.  She explained to me all of the insufferable things her new husband did to annoy her: not washing his dishes, leaving clothes lying around, playing video games all of the time etc….guy stuff.

My mother would always tell us (my sister and I) that all men are the same.  She was right in that there are many things that all men have in common.  The same goes for the ladies.  I had taken this advice so literally that although I knew in my heart there was someone more suited to me for a relationship, my mind feared that I would run into the same incompatibilities with every man.  Thankfully, as I got to know my now-husband, I learned that my heart was right-all men are NOT the same…AND Each relationship has DIFFERENT challenges!  I had to find one with lessons I felt were worth learning.