Marital MadLibs – The stories we tell ourselves when our experiences don’t match our expectations

Do you remember when you were a kid and used to do those fun little “fill in the blank” stories called MadLibs?  The basic idea was to fill in the blank spaces provided within the story line using your own words (nouns and verbs as directed). In the end, you would read the story out loud and laugh at the crazy twists and turns the story would take because of the way you “filled in the blanks.”  It’s a lot of fun because the story doesn’t really matter.

Did you know that we are often presented with marrital madlib moments?  It’s true!  We are constantly presented with “blanks” in our relationship stories that we are forced to fill in with something.

Don’t believe me?  Ok, what did you put in the blank yesterday when your husband didn’t arrive home on time? 

How do you fill in the blanks?
What kind of stories do you tell yourself?  

He isn’t home yet because ______________________.
because he’s terrible at keeping track of time.
because it’s more important for him to please his boss than it is to please me and be home when he says he’ll be home.
because he probably stopped by his parents’ house to borrow a tool so he can keep working on that stupid project car of his.

Here’s one for the guys.

She rolled over and fell asleep because ______________________?
because she doesn’t want to be with me.
because she doesn’t find me attractive at all.

He didn’t respond to your text yet and the real reason for that is ______________________.

He didn’t take out the trash like we agreed he would because ______________________.

We are forced to fill in the blanks with something whenever there is a gap between our expectations and our experience.
So, what do you put in the blank?  What story do you tell yourself about your spouse?  Do you fill in the blank with positive words that show that you believe the best of your spouse?  Or do you find that you are most often filling in the blanks with negative words that reflect that you are believing the worst?

We challenge you to work hard at becoming a husband or wife who chooses the path of honor, love and respect by believing the best about your spouse.  Believing the best in those inevitable fill in the blank (marital madlib) moments will help keep your attitude and emotions in check while the story and truth are still unfolding.  Fight the urge to fill in the blank with negative and strange ideas because in the end it won’t be a fun story and no one will be laughing.  

Tell us what you think!  We would love to hear from you!

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 
~ 1 Corinthians 13:7 ~