10%-90% Rule
Sometime ago I ran across a writing where a young lady who was soon to be married, asked friends and relatives to give her what they thought to be good advice to build a happy marriage. She received many excellent ideas based on people's experiences in life and so forth but there was one that seemed to sum a lot of the ideas and stand out beyond the others. I will state what it was and then expound on it as I gave a great deal of thought to the matter and took it far beyond the intent of the lady who gave the idea.
First, the advice was as follows: Be sure to take care of your man in the area of sexual matters. When sex is good, it is only 10% of the marriage but when it is bad, it is 90% of the marriage. I thought about this for quite some time yet I arrived at a conclusion that goes far beyond the sexual matters. My conclusion is that in any area of a marriage, when it is good, ok or right, it is 10% of the marriage but when it is bad, not ok or not right, it is 90% of the marriage. It seems when all is ok, everything just kind of goes unnoticed but when something is not ok, suddenly everything turns into a big deal; hence we have the 10%-90% rule. I suppose I made the rule as 10%-90%, but it just seems to fit in whatever area of life or marriage you take it. Think about it! I suppose we can look at all areas of a marriage and find fault yet if we would take as much time (90%) to focus on the good and let the bad (10%) rest, we would find a totally different outcome in most situations and marriages. It just seems like the 10%-90% Rule should be reversed so 90% is the ok and 10% is the bad if we are to succeed and have a happy marriage or life. Ok, maybe we could then call it the 90%-10% Rule.