Send the Message of Love The other night when I got home from a late evening meeting Russell greeted me at the door and announced he had done several loads of laundry. What a message of love! Are you sending mes sages of love occasionally to your partner? Partners in a growing relation ship enjoy doing things for each other. She may send him notes. He may do the laundry. But they do things for each other that send the message of love. One of the difficulties in mar riage is that sometimes one part ner is trying to send a message of love, but the other one isn’t get ting it For instance, if a husband likes to buy little gifts for his wife but she worries about the budget, she may not appreciate the gifts. Or. if he does not help around the house, she may not feel that he loves her no matter what he says. It doesn’t do any good to be an gry when your partner doesn’t seem to get the message from the things you do for him or her. Rather than.be mad, see if you can figure out what language of love works for your partner. Think about the things you’ve done that your spouse appreciates most Taking time to listen? Helping out? Writing or telling your love? Baking his/her favorite cookies? Giving a foot massage at the end of the day? In order to be more ef fective in showing love for your partner, you might ask him or her to describe the things that give the message of love. Pick one or two that you can work on. Send a mes sage of love every day in a way that works for your partner. Partners in a growing relation ship use conflict to improve the re lationship. When people first date or get married they often overlook or ignore the things that bother them in each other. After a while they may be more bothered by those things. They may think only about the things that bother them. They may become angry and won* der why the spouse does such aw ful things. But sometimes, the spouse has not changed. The other has just focused on the annoying actions. There will always be dif ferences anytime two people share their lives as much as a husband and wife. But those differences can help us to grow toward a stronger and more balanced rela tionship if we use the differences wisely. There are several rules to remember if you want, to keep your differences from ruining your marriage. Let some things go. Some things aren’t worth fighting about, and some times are bad times for fighting. Sometimes we let little things bother us until they are all we think about It may be best to overlook little differences. Some times we are bothered because we’re tired or sick. Or we may feel angry. But if we are tired or in an angry mood, we might do better to save the discussion until after a good night’s sleep. When we start pouring out our anger, we may just get more angry and damage the relationship. Talk to find answers rather titan to blame or hurt your spouse. Dis cussions are for finding answers, not for blaming, punishing, or hurting our partner. It is not very useful to figure out who started the problem. Each partner can blame the other. It is damaging to try to hurt or punish your partner. The reason to discuss problems is to ROLLING WLJN THE 90S WhCll YOU BUJT A You Get The Best MEETS THE CHALLENGE SSPIO GRASS SEEDERS apt. Available point or pull type Features of the SSPIO are 4 3/8 Bu. meter box capacity, 4 3/8 brome box capacity, Standard front wheel, and a 10’ rolling width. The overall width is 11 ’4” and approx, weight is 2018#. Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 20, 19P-B5 find better ways to make the mar riage work. Ask your partner questions like “Would it help if I (describe something you can do to improve the relationship)?’’ Recognize the differences be tween preferences and principles. Preferences include our favorite color, our favorite sandwich, the temperature we prefer for die bed room. Principles involve stand ards. We don’t believe in hurting other people. We believe in being responsible. Sometimes in mar riage we confuse principles and preferences. We think our partner is cruel because of disagreements over television programs, use of money, use of free time. Your partner’s way is not necessarily better or worse than your way. Try to find the values you have in common to help you make deci sions that satisfy you both. Take time to understand your partner. It’s common for people to Lebanon County Needs Contestants For Dairy Promotions The Lebanon County Dairy Promotion Committee is seeking contestants for the annual pageant to be held during June Dairy Month. Positions to be filled include dairy princesses between 16 and 24 years; dairy maids judge the goodness or smartness of what other people do. But a lot of conflict can be avoided by tak ing time to understand rather than judge. It’s hard to do. Most people never get good at it But the part ner who takes time to understand can be a more loving effective partner. For example, if your partner is bothered about something, it’s not helpful to say, “That’s stupid” or "You’ll get over it” or “Why can’t you grow up?” When a person is hurting, it’s mote helpful to say “That sounds very frustrating” or “Did you feel disappointed?” Have you thought of a message of love you can send to your part ner in the next few days? Take a few minutes to let your partner know that they still are the most important person in your life. Have fun this summer with your growing relationship! between 13 and 16 years, and Little Miss entrants between 6 and 8 years. For more information on requirements, call Annette Buck at 717 867-5278 or Roberta Bashore at 717 865-4645. Pennsylvania ADAMSTOWN Adamstown Equip. Inc. ALLENTOWN Lehigh Ag Equipment BECHTELSVILLE Miller Equip. Co. CARLISLE Gutshall's, Inc. DOVER George N. Gross, Inc. EASTON Geo. V. 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