8 Ways to Guarantee Your Marriage Will Fail

The Colgate Pump saved our marriage.

Yes, we’re talking about toothpaste. When we married and our tubes became one, our union was destined for disaster. The problem? One of us squeezed the tube in the middle. And the other, preferred we squeezed the tube starting at the very end so we could neatly roll up the empty portion of the tube as we used it. My husband wanted the newly established family toothpaste tube to be smooth and uniform until the toothpaste was gone.

Toothpaste comes out no matter where you squeeze the tube. Thank God for the Colgate Pump. Just push the trigger on top. No squeezing involved. And, here we are, happily married and sharing the same tube of toothpaste almost 30 years later.

Toothpaste may seem like a minor issue. But minor issues can lead to major ones, and somehow half of marriages fold. No one goes into marriage plotting ways to destroy it. But why are so many couples unhappy and why do so many marriages end in divorce?

Bad marriages aren’t intentional. They’re unintentional when people fail to intentionally focus on the kind of relationship they want. After more than 30 years of marriage, we can’t tell you how to divorce proof your marriage. But we can tell you what will drive your spouse away fast.

Here are 8 sure-fire ways to guarantee your marriage will fail.

Disrespecting your spouse.

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This is a great way to destroy your marriage. Consistently disrespect your husband, and your chance of ending up in divorce court will increase exponentially. Respect is huge for men. Sadly, most of us women don’t understand this. We can disrespect our men in ways we don’t even realize are disrespectful.

Not because they’re overly sensitive but because our words go into their brains through their male filter. And that filter doesn’t work the same way a woman’s does. That’s a fact. Disrespect is a sure-fire way to drive him away and shut down the emotional intimacy in your marriage. And it can occur in a myriad of ways.

Beware: Respecting your husband is counter-cultural, counter-intuitive, and counter feminist in today’s society.

When you respect your husband, he’ll almost always respond in a loving way. Any man met with a constant barrage of insults will either emotionally shut down or seek respect elsewhere.