Dwayne here Dry Creek Wrangler school another morning here in the tack room trying to get some stuff done of course we have a fire in the wood stove and just finished my third or fourth cup of coffee but who's counting uh got a good cigar going I'll probably pronounce this wrong miketta um and uh it's a good strong cigar I I like these pretty well picked up a box of them recently um so any I want to read you another poem this morning if that's okay this is called life's Scars by Ella wheeler Wilcox um
and it's it's got It's got a truth in it that uh that I think more people ought to stop and pay attention to in their life they say the world is Round And yet I often think it's Square so many little hurts we get from Corners here and there but one great truth in life I found while journeying to the West the only folks who really wound are those we love the best the man you thoroughly despise can Rouse your wrath is true annoyance in your heart will rise at things mere strangers do but those
are only passing ills this rule all lives will prove the rankling wound which aches and thrills is dealt by hands we love the choicest Garb the sweetest Grace are of to strangers shown the careless mean the frowning face are given to our own we flatter those we scarcely know we please the fleeting guest and deal full many a thoughtless blow to those we love the best love does not grow on every tree nor true hearts yearly Bloom alas for those who only see this cut across a tomb but soon or late the fact grows plent
to all through sorrow's test the only folks who give us pain are those we love the best now she's speaking here from the Viewpoint of those who hurt us or those that we love the best but we can turn that around from the Viewpoint of the other side the only folks that we hurt the worst are those that we love the best I I've not always been the most I was not always the best husband um there was and you know I've talked about this before in the early years middle years of our marriage um
I had a lot going on I was under a lot of stress I was a um I was a tightly wound man I was often an angry man um but there was one thing in my marriage that I never did um I never when I was not now this sounds like a separate issue but it it carries through when I was with the guys on the construction site or working wherever on the ranch or whatever I was doing at the time you know guys will sit around and they'll start talking and and on break or
just whenever and they'll start talking about uh problems and things at home and invariably they'll start belly aching about their wife I never did that that is one thing that I I had never disrespected or complained about my wife um unfortunately I did not always treat her with the gentleness and tenderness and compassion with the bragging and and the respect to her person that I could have and that I should have and you read that poem and you realize that we do treat strangers better than we treat those that we love and we will speak
to our spouse or to our children or to our parents in a way that we would never speak to a stranger we will be rude we will be disrespectful we will be dishonorable we will be mean we will be cutting we will be thoughtless we will be hateful to those that we love and to those who love us and we will treat strangers much better we will give a stranger a compliment or a brag but when was the last time many of us and I have I work on this really really hard now when was
the last time that you just went and told your spouse your significant other how great they are how well they're doing how good they look we because I mean we do it because we can get away with it the little cutting things um my my wife you back in the day more so it's not as in am uh it's not as prevalent now uh it it's not but my wife she had you know she was looking after seven children and a lot of times I was working two jobs and trying to do something something in
the ministry and and then you know having to take care of the house and and whenever I got home and but she was home with the kids and we lived in the country and it's work you know I mean it was work for her her her work was ever bit as hard but she would when she knew like I was going to be home at 5:30 she would sto what she was doing and she would go and and uh brush her hair and if she was you know still in her pajamas or sweats or whatever
you know from just dealing with the kids all day she' stop and go put on something nice and brush your hair and uh and when I would come home she would be standing there waiting for me and uh and they she would have a a uh a flurry of activ ity with the kids and they would you know I mean they were homeschooling and and everything so it was chaos and it was to be expected but she would they would stop say oh Daddy's going to be in a few minutes and they would go through
and straighten up the house and have things clean and and like I said should go put on something nice and and brush her hair and and you know you see that people will do that oh so and so is coming over to visit let's clean the house let's let's make ourselves a little bit more presentable but we won't do that for each other we hurt the ones we love because I think in a lot of ways it's not that we don't love them but self-conscious subconsciously um we can get away with it it's not necessary
if you want to add a little extra meaning a little extra spark um a little extra depth to your relationship with whoever start treating them as well as you treat strangers uh there are guys out there who will hold the door going into a store for a lady that's going through but they never hold the door for their wife shame on you shame on you we hurt the ones with love because we don't hold them in as high a regard on a daily basis as we do the stranger if we gave as much thought to
how we can daily affect how the one we love sees us and thinks about us as much as we do the stranger my gosh how could we improve our relationship in just the little way fellas if you're a slob and your wife treats you like you're a slob after a while whose fault is that can you blame her now she won't do it maybe deliberately but marriage my wife and I been married for it be 34 years in March and we've had her ups and we've had her downs we still have her UPS we still
have our Downs all right we we don't have a we don't have a textbook romance book Hollywood marriage we have a regular people marriage but it's the little it's the little things that grow into the big things the Bible says it's the little foxes that spoil the grapes and you don't all of a sudden just lose that spark and you don't just lose that extra bit of romance that little bit of of uh fireworks that little bit what we do to get a friend is what we have to do to keep a friend what you
had to do to get your wife that's what you got to do to keep your wife to keep her interest to keep her thrill to keep her coming and you combed your hair when you were dating your wife you put on a nice clean shirt when you were dating your wife you told her she looked good you held the door for her if you didn't do any of this I don't know how in the world you got your wife all right um you asked her what she wanted to eat where she wanted to go the
the Thousand little things that we do for strangers that we don't do for those that we love and the Thousand little tiny paper cuts that we give those that we love that we wouldn't dream of giving to a stranger all right think about it a marriage of 34 years is made made up of thousands of days and those thousands of days are made up of 10, thousands of hours and those 10, thousands of hours are made up of hundreds of thousands of minutes marriages and relationships and friendships are not often killed by one big explosion
they usually die a slow death of a million little paper cuts just think about it all right just think about it we'll catch you guys next time
