Articles

Embrace Differences in Your Marriage

The good thing is our common interests outnumbered our differences, but that doesn’t mean those differences haven’t provided challenges at times.

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Published

9 years ago

September 15, 2014

Ashleigh Slater

When Ted and I tied the knot, we definitely had common interests. At the same time, though, we weren’t identical in our likes and dislikes. Sound familiar? I bet you can relate.

Ted enjoyed sushi, late night talk radio, and Fox News.

Me … not so much. I really preferred a visit to the dentist over watching coverage of the latest crime case or hearing conspiracy theories about Area 51. And sushi, well, unlike Ted and Tolkien’s Gollum, I didn’t care for “raw and wriggling” food.

I favored Hallmark Channel original movies, clearance racks at Macy’s, and Gilmore Girls.

Yep, you guessed it: Ted … not so much. I’ve had to ban him from all Hallmark movies except The Magic of Ordinary Days. He heckles. The mall, it gives him a headache after thirty minutes. And he finds the dialogue in Gilmore Girls unrealistically witty. Fortunately for him, I abandoned the drama of Rory and Lorelai when the show’s last bit of moral sanity jumped ship.

The good thing is our common interests outnumbered our differences, but that doesn’t mean those differences haven’t provided challenges at times.

Learning to embrace differences is what I and five of my blogging friends are discussing this week in our “Embrace Your Marriage: A Virtual Marriage Retreat” series. I’m over at my blog with the article, “3 Ways to Embrace Differences in Your Marriage,” sharing with you some practical tactics that are helpful to Ted and me.

Read my post here. Then be sure to read these posts on embracing differences in your marriage from my teammates:

Darlene Schacht of Time-Warp Wife
Courtney Joseph of Women Living Well
Lisa Jacobson of Club 31 Women
Jennifer Smith of Unveiled Wife
Sheila Gregoire of To Love, Honor, and Vacuum

Embrace

Team Us offers couples practical ways to cultivate and strengthen unity in their marriages. I share from my own marriage as I present couples with realistic ideas on how to foster cooperation, deepen commitment, and exercise grace on a daily basis.

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Ashleigh Slater

Ashleigh Slater is the author of the books Braving Sorrow Together: The Transformative Power of Faith and Community When Life is Hard and Team Us: The Unifying Power of Grace, Commitment, and Cooperation in Marriage. With over twenty years of writing experience and a master’s degree in communication, she loves to combine the power of a good story with practical application to encourage and inspire readers. Ashleigh lives in Atlanta with her husband, Ted, and four daughters.

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"Real life is not always pleasant. Every marriage experiences disappointments, misunderstandings, sickness and financial crisis. Ashleigh doesn’t camouflage the pain in her own marriage, and offers practical ideas on how to walk through the difficulties and find intimacy on the journey. If you are anything like me, I predict that as you read, you too will find yourself laughing, wiping tears, and saying 'Oh, yes.'"

-- Gary Chapman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 5 Love Languages