Growing Apart: Keep It From Happening to You

I told you that marriages either grow or weaken. If you put no effort into your marriage, you’re not maintaining it: you’re letting it deteriorate.
Similarly, all the time you’re either growing apart or growing together. If you are not communicating, not touching, and not spending time together, then you are growing apart.
It’s amazing how few people really know their spouse. Do you know who your spouse’s biggest role model is? Do you know the one book or CD your partner would want to have if he or she were stranded on a deserted island? Do you know what his or her favorite color is? Do you know exactly what your spouse does at work?
Getting to know someone truly, inside and out, takes effort. Most of us prefer learning more about our own preferences, opinions, and ideas than those of our spouse. Yet a strong marriage is one where both individuals make an effort to find out what is going on inside their spouse’s head. They appreciate, understand, and respect that information.
Growing together means sharing together. It doesn’t mean thinking alike, or avoiding conflicts, or not having disagreements. It doesn’t mean that neither of you ever changes. Growth, by definition, is change. A healthy marriage is one in which both people mature and change their ideas, perspectives, and plans. The trick is to share those changes openly and honestly with your spouse as they occur.
When you grow together, you share what you’re thinking, feeling, and hoping for. You don’t remain the same person that your spouse met. Instead, you find new hobbies, new passions, and new jobs that keep your life exciting and always surprising. Even when your new direction seems to lead in an opposite direction from your spouse, it is usually just old perceptions that makes it seem that way. Spouses can be resistant to changes in their partner, because they see it as a sign that their partner is dissatisfied with things as they are. Reassure your spouse. Whatever new direction you take, you need to involve your spouse fully and ensure that nothing will cut into your couple time. Changes are frightening, but when there is communication, honesty, and willingness to compromise at every step of the way, change can be an enormously positive thing.
Let’s look at the example of Joan and Michael.

For the first five years of their marriage, Joan stayed at home while Michael worked. She found herself gaining weight, getting bored, and listening enviously to her single girlfriends about their adventurous jobs and

experiences. At first, she blamed it on her marriage. Then, a frank friend reminded her that her marriage vows didn’t include a promise to do the same thing ‘til death do you part. That night, she told Michael that she wanted to go back to work and try a three-month subscription to a gym. He was horrified. He thought it meant that she wasn’t happy with how he provided for the family, and that the only reason she could possibly want to go to the gym was to look good for another man. They had a huge argument, and Michael forbade Joan to go job-hunting. The stress in their marriage was at a breaking point.
It took the intervention of their pastor before Joan and Michael could sit down and discuss their feelings without getting upset. Joan told Michael that she needed to keep growing and trying more out of life, but that she wanted to do it with him, not without him. Michael confessed that he worried that Joan would meet someone new if she started working outside the home. Their pastor encouraged both of them to continue talking openly and honestly and involve each other as their life changed. As a result, Michael decided to join the gym along with Joan. Joan’s new job gave both of them much more to talk about in the evenings, and their communication improved. Too, the extra income gave them more money to go out and do activities that they enjoyed. Ultimately, the change that Michael feared actually strengthened their marriage.
Michael and Joan learned some valuable lessons. (1) When one partner suggests a change, the other partner often feels indirectly criticized, thinking that the other person means that status quo is not be good enough. Reassuring your partner is essential during this tough time. (2) Sometimes it takes professional help (such as a pastor or marriage counselor) to get you talking about how you really feel. (3) Any change that can be undertaken mutually (such as both Michael and Joan joining the gym) is better than a change that can only be undertaken individually