SEPTEMBER 16 "DON'T BREAK OFF THE KNOBS!"

Mr. Jones, through the advice of a “former friend” once bought a new radio, brought it home,

placed it on the refrigerator, plugged it in, turned it to WSM in Nashville (home of the Grand

Ole Opry) set the volume and station where he wanted it and then made sure

to break off all the knobs to make sure his wife couldn’t change the station or

adjust the volume to her liking, as he knew she would try to do! It worked like

a charm. This idea worked so well he decided rather than to keep fighting

with his wife over the temperature in the house, to adjust the air in the home

to the temperature he liked and then went on-line and set up a pass code

that needed to be entered, each time the temperature was to be changed, in

case his wife wanted or thought she would change it to her preference. It

worked like a charm too. His wife complained her back was hurting and

that they needed a better mattress, they ended up buying a select comfort,

deluxe mattress that adjusts the firmness of the mattress to your liking,

to cheap to get the dual adjustment, for each side, he opted out for just one

adjustment for the whole bed, said it would be fine. After much debate over

the firmness of the mattress between he and his wife, he adjusted and set the

comfort level to his liking then hid the remote in case his wife thought of

adjusting it to her liking. He also graciously volunteered to set up their

checking account and set up her debit card too with a password that only he

knows in case she decides to stop by the ATM and take out money for herself

for leisure shopping or anything else, crazy like that.

Today, the debit card sits on the kitchen counter top, the knobs are still

broken off the radio, the temperature is still set and locked and the bed is still

set perfectly to his liking, but, he no longer has to hide the remote to the

mattress, it is no longer necessary for the knobs to be broken off the radio, or

the temperature in the house to be locked at his preference, because Mr.

Jones now lives by himself. Nobody to argue with, nobody to have

to share with, nobody to have to be unselfish with, nobody to have to share

his finances with, all the trouble he went through to make sure he would

have it his way, to his liking, worked quite well, but it ’s all futile now that he

lives alone. Imagine two people entering into marriage with the thought of its going

to be my way, how I want it , and break off all the knobs, whether that’s

literally, like Mr. Jones or figuratively? The failure of marriage is not due to the

fact that marriage doesn’t work, it’s due to the failure of singles to understand

you can ’t enter into marriage with the mindset that you will be able to partake

of all the benefits of marriage, while still holding on to all the benefits of being

single; that my friend is a recipe for disaster. Something has to give and it will,

sooner, if not later. Either that person will learn to surrender their selfish interests and

compromise or they will surrender their marriage. But you cannot have both the benefits of

being single and the benefits of being married. They are diametrically opposed to each

other. Question to ask yourself is, am I really just a single person with a wedding ring on?

How do I know? Look around your home, are all the knobs broken off?

Then the answer is yes!