THE FLIP SIDE - SECRETS IN MARRIAGE

While I am an advocate for transparency in marriage because this is what I practice in my own home, I will be naive to assume that this will work for all couples.

There are some people who just cannot take the fact that their spouse cheated on them and may become violent in handling such news.

The younger sister told me the story of a man who was the first boyfriend his wife ever had. He was the first person to ever have sex with her and so he would always boast that no other man on earth had ever had carnal knowledge of his wife. This confidence made the man believe that irrespective of whatever he did the girl would never leave him for another man. So he started to have other affairs even to the knowledge of the girl. Unknown to him, when he traveled out of his location for a while the girl met another man who had a brief affair with her and went to bed with her. When he came back, they continued and eventually got married because the affair the girl had was a fling.

Over time they both became Christians but the husband was in the habit of always boasting that he was the only one that has ever slept with her. This confession began to have an effect on her and her conscience began to prick her because what the husband was always boasting about was a lie and anytime he made the statement she felt the weight of guilt.

So one day she decided to tell him the truth that when he traveled out of town for a lengthy period she had a brief affair with someone else and that he is not the only man that has ever slept with her. This confession blew a fuse which almost led to the total collapse of their marriage but for the intervention of their Pastor who felt the girl did the right thing.

While recognizing the fact that I may not have all the answers, I strongly believe that the balance to this issue of secrets in a marriage starts from day one. Knowing that we all have different temperaments, it is important to seat down and agree on certain things before you start this journey together. It is important to agree on how the two of you will resolve conflicts; it is at this stage that your resolve all secrets by being transparent. (I strongly recommend you read the Book 4 Things Intending Couples Must Agree on Before Marriage by Dr. James Iruobe.)

If at this stage your spouse decides to back out of the marriage you have not lost anything and my take is that the person does not deserve someone like you.

If you are already marriage and in this dilemma, I counsel that you see your Pastor who will be able to handle the issue with spirituality and tact.

Finally, I recognize that some people by their nature or experience are secretive and when one is married to such a person just make up your mind that there are things you are likely to find out latter about your spouse. It is even worse when you marry someone that does not take anything serious and is likely to downplay the implications of not revealing things to you from the onset.

The "secret" is to know and understand your spouse and be willing to forgive if eventually things that you never knew about him comes to light. After all we all have out little secrets which we pray never comes to limelight.

God bless you.

Femiimevbore@gmail.com
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www.lifebuilder.ecwid.com

www.elshaddaicovenantchurch.org

KEEPING SECRETS

Greetings friends! It is nice to be back on the block after me brief hiatus. It is interesting that during my leave period a couple of issues came to fore that I believe will be worth tackling in this forum.

However, there was a Radio Program I listened to that brought up an interesting topic for discussion and this caught my attention and got my thinking.

The topic was whether it is right for a husband to disclose every thing to his wife. The background to this discussion was that there was a man who had lost his job for sometime but his three friends had been sustaining him. He leaves home every day as if going to work but it had reached the stage where he had to pay his rent and the children's school fees and felt that it was time to let the wife know his predicament.

While this may appear to be an extreme hypothetical case, the fact is that many men do not tell their wives a lot of things about themselves for many reasons. Some wives do not know anything about their husband's businesses or income; some have no idea what investments their husband has or the extent of properties owned. Issues that happen in the office are also kept secrets and so when there is a sudden change in any of these situations the woman is at sea and does not know what to do.

In the western societies it is easy for men to be thoroughly transparent with their wives but in the African societies with all its cultural gamuts it is not so easy for a man to be thoroughly transparent. We have a proverb in Africa that says "it is not all a man sees in the bush while hunting he tells his wife".

The question that come readily to mind is why would men be secretive? Or rather is it right for a man to disclose everything about himself to his wife?

For the non Christian I may not be able to help you much but for the Christian let us explore what the Bible tends to teach us.

Genesis 2:24
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.(NIV)

Genesis 2:16-17
And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."(NIV)

Genesis 3:1-3
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"(NIV)

The first thing to see here is that God intends that there be no division between a man and his wife. They are to be one flesh - no secrets, no dark sides, no hidden agenda. This is God's prescription for marriage.

The second thing I want you to observe is that when God gave the first commandment to Adam, there is no record that he communicated the instruction to his wife Eve. It will appear to me that the man, as it is wont with all men, either summarized God instruction or exaggerated what God said. In any case he failed to communicate what God said exactly to her and this caused the downfall of man.

When we hide things from our wives, we invariably create a situation where in our absence, the woman is handicapped and may be not be able to handle issues sufficiently to the benefit of the family. I have come ot realize that there is really nothing hidden under the some. It will only take some time but the truth will come out and what you did not want you wife to know will be there in the open.

Even if it is something you are not entirely proud of, it is wise for you to let your wife in on what is happening. There is the story of a woman who delivered her husband from the firing squad during the coup that attempted to oust the regime of General Babaginda led by Simeon Okar. This soldier had heard about the coup and reported to his immediate boss who he did not know was sympathetic to the plot. As usual he told his wife what was happening and when eventually he was implicated as one of the plotters of the coup, she was able to exonerate her husband.

For whatever disadvantage one may adduce to being open and transparent with our spouses, the advantage clearly outweighs the disadvantage.

To keep secrets from your wife is to say in subtle terms that you do not trust her enough to know everything about yourself. When a man usually is in trouble, it is not only him that bears the brunt, the wife and children though innocent automatically become casualties.

How many woman have been unable to trace their husbands property or investments when they suddenly die?

If you really love your wife as a Christian, there should be no secrets whatsoever between you.

God bless you.

Femiimevbore@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/officialecc?ref=hl
www.lifebuilder.ecwid.com

www.elshaddaicovenantchurch.org