Love Accepts Many Imperfections

Is there some habit your spouse does (one of many imperfections) that really irritates you? And then to make matters worse when you tell them how much it bothers you, do they still continue to do it? Grrr! This can be things like leaving dirty clothes on the floor, talking to you when you’re listening/watching something you think is important, or not picking up after themselves—and the list goes on and on.

There’s no doubt that this can be frustrating! It’s those little things—those irritating imperfections, that add up that can really get to us!

Even so, within marriage, love accepts many imperfections. It has to—we have to! If we don’t, all of our marriages would most certainly fail!

To explain more, here’s something Dr Gary Chapman wrote that might clarify this matter. It’s from his book The Marriage You’ve Always Wanted (an updated version of his book, Toward a Growing Marriage).

Concerning Imperfections We Live With Gary Writes:

“1 Peter 4:8 reads, ‘Love covers a multitude of sins“ (NASB). If I could paraphrase the verse, I would say, ‘Love accepts many imperfections.’ Love does not demand perfection from one’s mate. There are some things that your mate either cannot or will not change. These I am calling imperfections. They may not be moral in nature but are simply things that you do not like. May I illustrate from my own marriage?

“We had been married several years before I realized that my wife was a ‘drawer opener,’ but not a ‘drawer closer.’ [It’s a small problem, but it’s still irritating.] I don’t know if I had been blinded to that fact the first three or four years or if it was a new behavior pattern for her; but at any rate it irritated me greatly.

“I did what I thought was the ‘adult’ thing to do. I confronted her with my displeasure in the matter and asked for change. The next week, I observed carefully each time I entered our apartment, but to my dismay there was no change. Each time I saw an open drawer, I fumed. Sometimes I exploded. My basic pattern was to vacillate between days of verbal explosion and days of quiet smoldering, but all the while I was furious.

Further Explanation

“After a couple of months, I decided to use my educational expertise. I would give her a visual demonstration, along with my lecture. I went home and took everything out of the top bathroom drawer, removed the drawer, and showed her the little wheel on the bottom and how it fit into the track, and explained what a marvelous invention that was. This time, I knew that she understood how the drawer worked and how serious I was about the matter.

“The next week, I eagerly anticipated change. But no change came! For several weeks I seethed inside every time I saw an open drawer.

“Then one day, I came home to discover that our eighteen-month-old daughter had fallen and cut the corner of her eye on the edge of an open drawer. Karolyn had taken her to the hospital. There she had gone through the ordeal of watching the surgeon stitch up that open wound and wondering if it would leave a scar or impair vision.

“She told me the whole story, and I contained my emotions while I listened. I was proud of myself. I didn’t even mention the open drawer. But on the inside, I was saying, I bet she’ll close those drawers now! I knew this would be the clincher. She had to change now! But she did not.

Analyzing Alternatives

“After another week, the thought crossed my mind, ‘I don’t believe she will ever change!’ I sat down to analyze my alternatives. So, I wrote them down: (1) I could leave her! (2) I could be miserable every time I looked at an open drawer from now until the time I die, or she dies, or (3) I could accept her as a ‘drawer opener’ and take for myself the task of closing drawers.

“As I analyzed these alternatives, I ruled out number one right away. As I looked at number two, I realized that if I were going to be miserable every time I saw an open drawer from now until I die, I would spend a great deal of my life in misery. So, I reasoned that the best of my alternatives was number three: accept this as one of her imperfections.

“I made my decision and went home to announce it. ‘Karolyn,’ I said, ‘you know the thing about the drawers?’ ‘Gary, please don’t bring that up again,’ she replied. ‘No,’ I said, ‘I have the answer. From now on, you don’t have to worry about it. You don’t ever have to close another drawer. I’m going to accept that as one of my jobs. Our drawer problem is over!’

Love Accepts Many Imperfections

“From that day to this, open drawers have never bothered me. I feel no emotion, no hostility. I simply close them. That is my job. When I get home tonight, I can guarantee the open drawers will be waiting for me. I shall close them, and all will be well.

“What am I suggesting by this illustration? That in marriage you will discover things that you do not like about your mate. It may be the way he hangs towels, squeezes toothpaste, or installs the toilet paper.

“The first course of action is to request change. (If you can change, why not do so? It’s a small matter to make your partner happy.) However, I can assure you that there are some things that your mate either cannot or will not change. This is the point at which ‘love accepts many imperfections.’ You decide where the point of acceptance will come.

“Some of you have had running battles for 20 years over things as simple as open drawers. Could this be the time to call a cease-fire and make a list of things that you will accept as imperfections? I don’t want to discourage you, but your mate will never be perfect. He or she will never do everything that you desire. Your best alternative is the acceptance of love!”

Grace Extended for Some Imperfections

Now, please know that we’re not talking about abusive or adulterous behavior here; we’re talking about “normal” irritations. (We explore those issues in other articles on this web site in deeper ways. Just look around.) And we’re not talking about enabling bad behavior. Sometimes it’s important to confront certain behaviors and speak truth “in love” to stop them from continuing.

But there are other times when we have to find compromises so we can better live with our spouse’s non-abusive “imperfections.” It’s all a part of marrying our differences.

In over five decades of marriage, we’ve each had to find different ways to deal with more irritations than we care to count. (We’ve shared a few of them in past Marriage Insights. Two in particular deal with hangers being left around, and tooth brushing that grosses out the other.) As a matter of fact, we have recently worked out a few more of them. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s important for our peace of mind and marital survival.

It’s like what Gary Chapman says, if we don’t work through them to some type of resolution, they will continually go on and on and on and on. And it’s just not worth letting them cause ongoing problems in our relationship and our already complicated life together.

Bottom line: Make the effort to stop irritating each other the least that it is possible (to the best of your ability). Also, try not to enable selfish behavior. Work it through, to the degree that your spouse will cooperate with you. But also make the effort to release that, which you can’t change. If you don’t it will drive you crazy! And that kind of crazy can only hurt your marriage relationship—not help it in the long run.

Our Prayer:

This is our prayer for you (and for us too):

Lord, please help us to be dispensers of grace, rather than vessels of criticism. Help us NOT to hold onto that, which won’t matter 100 years from now. Also, help us to know when we are to “speak the truth in love” and when we just need to release it and let You work within the situation, and within us, as your children. And help us to never lose sight of what is truly important! This, of course, pertains to Your kingdom work both outside our home and within, and the ways in which we should participate.

And to that we say, amen!

Cindy and Steve Wright

— ADDITIONALLY —

To help you further, we give a lot of personal stories, humor, and more practical tips in our book, 7 ESSENTIALS to Grow Your Marriage. We hope you will pick up a copy for yourself. (It’s available both electronically and in print form.) Plus, it can make a great gift for someone else. It gives you the opportunity to help them grow their marriage. And who doesn’t need that? Just click on the linked title or the picture below:

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