How About A Million Bucks?

How about a Million Bucks?

My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. . . . Search for [wisdom and insight] as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. Then you will . . . gain knowledge of God.

Proverbs 2:1, 4-5

Glen and Gloria Sims of Sewell, New Jersey, won a drawing sponsored by tax-preparation company H&R Block, but they didn’t believe it when they heard the news. After several attempts to contact them by mail and phone, the Sims still thought it was a scam, dismissing the special notices.

Some time later, H&R Block called one more time, this time to let the Sims know that their deadline for accepting the prize was nearing—and that the story of their refusal to accept the prize would appear on an upcoming episode of NBC’s Today Show. That got their attention. Mr. Sims finally decided to look into the matter. A few days later he appeared on the Today Show himself to tell America that he and his wife had finally gone to H&R Block to claim their rightful prize.

Amazing, isn’t it? A million-dollar prize waiting for them to claim, and they almost lost it to their skepticism. Truth is, any of us could have done the same thing. If you’ve been around long enough you know how easy it can be to be snookered by a sales gimmick. And if you’ve been married long enough, sadly, you may have fallen into the same mind-set trap with your spouse.

Knowingly or not, we sometimes put our partners in boxes. He’s been like that for years, we think. She’ll never change. But he or she can and will make positive changes, if you let it happen. If you refuse to see something good, small increments of improvement in some area, it is you who make the change impossible. It’s like not claiming a million-dollar prize when it’s there for the asking. So quit rolling your eyes and set aside your skepticism to discover the good changes that may be taking place right beside you.

What treasure in your marriage might you be missing out on by refusing to believe that change is possible? We know this can be a soul-searching question, so you may need some time to think about it. But once you identify a place where you’re potentially keeping your spouse from making positive change (because you refuse to believe it will ever happen), see if you can take a step back and accept the possibility that change could happen. You and your marriage will be the richer for it.

Faith is an excitement and an enthusiasm: it is a condition of intellectual magnificence to which we must cling as to a treasure, and not squander on our way through life in the small coin of empty words, or in exact and priggish argument.

—George Sand