Change Begins with Me

"You cannot change your man. You can only change yourself."

There are many times in life that we want to change someone else. I only wish it were that easy. There are times when we see the "wrong" in others and want to fix it, but never think to look at ourselves and see anything that needs changing.

"The only person that you can change is yourself." This is something that I've heard over and over...it is true though. A lot of problems can be solved if we adjust our own way of thinking, or doing, instead of dwelling on how the other person can change.

When it comes to my hubby and me, we don't always see eye-to-eye. There are times when I think everything will be better if he just changes is point-of-view or the way he does things. But I quickly notice that everything in that thought requires him to change and not me.  I realize that I need to reevaluate myself and to work on my own changing.

I want to work on some areas that I know I need improvement on. I know that if I work on these different areas then my hubby will have no other choice but to change and react in another way. This isn't some plot to get him to change, but I'm just realizing that my way of handling things causes him to react in ways that I don't like. For instance...if I get home from a long day at work and find dirty dishes in the sink I immediately get frustrated and have to wash the dishes (in a very rough and upset way). After I've already reacted in this way, my hubby gets defensive and angry and this causes a problem that we have to discuss. His "actions" would have changed, or been completely different, if I had only taken the time to greet him, or accept his welcome home greeting, and then we could have proceeded to wash the dishes together (or he may have even done it by himself). Sometimes it is a simple change of my own actions that will require a change in my hubby as well!

Here is a list of things I want to work on - CHANGE:

• Nagging
• Yelling (or jumping to frustration quickly)
• Complaining
• Bringing my "work" home
• Whining
• "Guilting"

These sound terrible...and I'm almost embarrassed to admit these things....BUT I need to. I need to realize that they're true and fess-up to my shortcomings. I'm changing them though!!!

"He has made everything beautiful in its time."
                     Ecclesiastes 3:11