(ST from Nagano Prefecture/Female/70s/Housewife)
My first marriage didn’t work out, so I hoped to create a warm and loving family when I got married again. However, when we started to live together, differences in our life style began to surface. I always wanted to go out and spend time together with him whenever we had time, while my husband wanted to spend holidays at home to relax—we were looking for different things.
The more I learned Kami’s teachings, the more I was able to realize that I was too insistent. Asking Kami for much caring and understanding heart toward my husband’s feelings who works hard every day, my actions began to change. No matter how busy I was, I made an effort to use nicer words with smiles when seeing him off each day. I kept doing this every day, even though there were times when my heart was broken from having some arguments. Instead of making him do whatever I wanted to do, I tried to listen and value what he wanted to do.
Then my husband changed gradually. Now, he asks me where I want to go or what I want to do. We take turn of what we want to do, which makes our time together more fulfilling. When we are fulfilled, even the loud voices of children in the neighborhoods do not bother us anymore. As a matter of fact, we are starting to like it is because, even though we don’t have kids at home, we get to hear children playing and having fun. It is all because of the teachings that changed our views, the bond between us as husband and wife have deepened. We are grateful that we were able to create a warm and loving family that I had always wished for.