The Poison of Pride

An attitude of pride is truly poisonous, no matter the situation. Pride can manifest in so many ways, and in so many aspects of our lives. How can we keep pride from poisoning our marriages? What does pride in a marriage even look like?

One symptom of pride in a marriage relationship is being unwilling to compromise or accept influence from your spouse.

“If you are having difficulty accepting influence, you will benefit your marriage enormously by acknowledging this tendency and talking about it with your spouse. Nobody can change old habits overnight. But if you’re able to take responsibility for your difficulty with power-sharing, that will be a major leap forward.”

- Dr Gottman, author of The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work  

Being able to accept influence from your spouse is ever so important. This allows for sharing power in the relationship and turns spouses towards each other in decision making. Sometimes it can be really hard to accept influence from someone else, however, making the extra effort does count! My husband and I were recently married this summer and we have had a fun time these past four months adjusting to living together. Our transition has brought up quirks and habits each of us have that are different from what the other is used to. We have been learning how to make big life decisions together and figure out how to share power in our marriage. We have an ongoing discussion about a future home we want to build. Our styles are very different – my husband loves the really modern contemporary look, all clean lines and edgy, futuristic exteriors. I, on the other hand, love the quaint cottage or Tudor style, ivy and all. It has become a fun practice to find pictures of home ideas on Pinterest and pin to a dream house board we share. The whole goal is to find something we personally like, that we think the other would like as well. It has been fun and a challenge, but good practice, as we then apply those same compromising skills on other decisions we make.

pic cred:http://camillestyles.com/living/diy/best-halloween-diys/?slide=6