Maybe?

Cheryl Gowin and Dennis Gowin.  Call us at our counseling practice with your feedback, comments, issues, or questions at 434-808-2637.

Have you ever heard the saying “art imitates life”?  This is not a new idea.  Over 300 years before the birth of Christ, Aristotle in Poetics presented the idea of finding inspiration for writing from real life.  Do you think Willie Nelson’s song “Always On My Mind” imitates life?  Don’t remember this song?  Here are the words.

Maybe I didn’t love you, quite as often as I could have
And, maybe I didn’t treat you, quite as good as I should have
If I made you feel second best, girl I’m sorry I was blind

But, you were always on my mind.  You were always on my mind.  You were always on my mind.

Yes, Elvis Presley also had a hit with this song.  So why do you think this song was a hit for two major singers and decades later DJs still play the song?  Could it be because the lyrics hit a cord with both men and women?

 Wayne Carson, one of the three songwriters, explained how the award winning song came together.  He pictured the reason for the creation of this song as, “In this case, ‘Always On My Mind’ happens to be one of those things that, universally, everybody on the planet has been there, you know.  And it struck all at one time.  Everybody touched base with that one.  It was just magic that it was so simple and so right on the button.”

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.  (Proverbs 14:12) Yes, the Bible tells us not to depend on actions that we think are right.  Applying this proverb to our marriages, just because we think it is right, it may not be.

So what is the right way?  Two ideas.  First, go back to Willie’s song, take out the maybe’s and change them to ‘I will.  I will treat you as good as I should.  I will hold you.  I will tell you I am happy you are mine.  I will tell you when I think of you.  I will take the time.

Second idea.  Read the Song of Songs to your spouse.  Song of Songs or Song of Solomon stresses the importance of keeping the romance alive in a marriage.  Just a note, reviewers describe this book of the Bible as risqué and one reviewer called it The Last Tango in Judah.  If reading is not your style, Pastor Tommy Nelson created a DVD series on Song of Songs.  Watch it with your spouse.  In the Song of Solomon, God gives us his manual on romantic relationships, taking us from the initial attraction between a couple, through courtship, deepening intimacy, and into marriage.  Use it, it will help.

My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies.  Song of Solomon 2:16

Call us with your feedback, comments, issues, or questions; our phone number is 434-808-2637.