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The Day I Almost Walked Out On My Marriage

The Day I Almost Walked Out On My Marriage

Last updated on: December 20, 2019 at 12:52 pm by Sheila Qualls

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The Day I Almost Walked Out On My Marriage 2019-12-20T12:52:57-06:00 Sheila Qualls

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day i almost walked out on my marriage I was done. Finito. Tapped out. I felt like a single parent. When my husband wasn’t traveling for work, he was at work. I was already raising the kids and doing life by myself. I felt like he was only a paycheck. It wouldn’t make much difference if he physically brought it home or sent it in the mail.

I complained to a girlfriend. She asked me a question which not only shocked me and made me mad, but also put my perspective of my marriage in check.

Instead of asking yourself if you should get a divorce, ask yourself if you’re putting everything you can into your marriage?

Pffssttt! Say what? I did everything from housekeeping to the horizontal hula. And I’d had enough. I didn’t realize my attitude had shifted from one of unconditional love to one of performance and expectations. My girlfriend told me to put the brakes on and challenged me to ask myself some hard questions before scampering into the long line of failed marriage statistics.

Maybe you’re in a hard place in your marriage. Maybe you’re tired of waking up and going to bed alone. Maybe your husband’s job feels more like a mistress than the source for your family’s livelihood. One hundred percent of marriages hit hard spots. And half of them end in divorce. Marriage is tough. What should you do when your happily-ever-after starts to crumble, and you want to look for a way out?

Ask yourself hard questions. Asking hard questions takes your focus off the problems and puts it on solutions. When your marriage feels like a mess, it’s easy and even natural to want to place blame. But the only behavior you can control is your own. Are you giving your marriage 100 percent? Lots of people go into marriage with a 50/50 attitude. I went into marriage with that attitude myself. I felt like I was giving more like 96.8 percent, and he was only giving 3.2.

Fifty/fifty sounds like a great model. It never works. The 50-50 attitude focuses on receiving. What is he doing for me? When my mindset changed from 50/50 to 100/100, my focus shifted from receiving to giving. Changing my attitude from performance-based to unconditional love, changed my perspective.

Are you looking at love as a feeling or a decision? Contrary to popular belief, love isn’t a feeling. If you’re relying on feelings, you’re going to stay disappointed. Marriage requires work and a mindset. Love is a decision. I have to choose to love regardless of how I feel.

If times are hard in your marriage, consider these questions before deciding on divorce:

1. Have I done everything in my power to improve my marriage?

2. Am I letting past emotional baggage affect our relationship?

3. Am I comparing my husband to my friend’s husband?

4. How will divorce affect my kids?

5. Do I consider love a feeling or a decision?

6. Am I more concerned with being right or do I want a resolution?

7. Am I keeping score?

8. Is divorce really the best option?

That hasn’t been the only rough spot in my marriage. Marriage isn’t about what he can do for me. It’s about giving it all I’ve got and letting God take care of the rest. When things get tough, I have to remember to ask myself the hard questions before thinking about throwing in the towel.

What could you do right now that would have a huge impact on your marriage?

Need skills to build intimacy?

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Also known as the Not So Excellent Wife, Sheila Qualls understands how tiring a tough marriage can be.

She went from the brink of divorce to having a thriving marriage by translating timeless truths into practical skills. She’s helped women just like you turn their men into the husbands they want.

After 33 years of marriage, she’s a coach and a speaker whose passion is to equip women to break relationship-stifling habits and do marriage God’s way. And you don’t have to be a doormat to do it.

She and her husband Kendall live in Minnesota with their five children and their Black Lab, Largo.

In addition to coaching, Sheila is a member of the MOPS Speaker Network. Her work has been featured on the MOPS Blog, The Upper Room, Grown and Flown, Scary Mommy, Beliefnet, Candidly Christian, Crosswalk.com, The Mighty and on various other sites on the Internet.

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