Be a cheerleader not a critic

What a wonderful opportunity we have to serve our husbands with our words and actions, to be his cheerleader and friend. Look at this quote from Barbara and Laura Bush.

When an interviewer once asked Barbara Bush what advice she gave to her daughter-in-law Laura Bush, her answer was simple: “Don’t criticize your husband.” The elder Mrs. Bush recalled a remark she made about one of George Bush Sr.’s speeches: “I think you’re tired, and you mumbled your words.” The effect of this seemingly innocent comment? “When I criticized George, he remembered it for months afterwards.”

“So I really took her advice to heart,” Laura Bush said. “I knew there were plenty of other critics [of my husband] without me being one of them. Until one night we were driving into our driveway and he said, ‘Tell me the truth, how was my speech?’ And I said, ‘Well, it wasn’t that good.’ And with that, he drove into the garage wall!”

Laura Bush points out something we must really think about, “I knew there were plenty of other critics [of my husband] without me being one of them." How often do we want to be the one to bring all the problems to our husband? He said this, he didn't say that, he wore that shirt out of the house and so on. Our husband has plenty of people around him correcting him. We should instead be his biggest cheerleader and encourager. I am not saying that we should be dishonest with him, I am saying we look for the good and compliment that.
Also, if we know our husband is under a lot of stress we should work hard to relieve that stress and not add more.

Lars Gren (Elisabeth Elliot's husband), presented this helpful challenge:

“A wife, if she is very generous, may allow that her husband lives up to perhaps eighty percent of her expectations. There is always the other twenty percent that she would like to change, and she may chip away at it for the whole of their married life without reducing it by very much. She may, on the other hand, simply decide to enjoy the eighty percent, and both of them will be happy.”

We are not perfect and our husbands aren't either. Just enjoy the husband of your youth.