Mercy and Okoro got married recently and began their honeymoon in their new home. One morning, they sat at the dining table to have their very first meal of breakfast. Mercy made a cup of tea for her husband who tasted it and felt that he needed one more cube of sugar. Okoro stretched his hand to pick up one cube of sugar from a plate. But just as he picked it up, mercy held his hand up before he could drop the sugar in his tea cup. “I have added sugar to your tea,” Mercy barked. “I know, but I want one more cube of sugar,” Okoro responded gently. The wife was not satisfied and continued to hold his hand to prevent him from putting the cube of sugar into his tea cup.
The whole incident initially sounded like a joke to Okoro who insisted on having his way. But the wife was apparently equally resistant to his having it. Okoro asked why he couldn’t have one more cube of sugar; Mercy said, “We’ve just started this family. Things are hard, so don’t waste the sugar.”
Okoro was furious at this point and forcibly took the sugar and dropped it into his tea cup. Mercy’s countenance changed immediately. She became quiet and would not even look in the husband’s direction. She was apparently plotting her next line of action.
Mercy felt offended by Okoro’s insensibility to her “prudent disposition”. She felt that the best way to drive her point home was to give the husband some “cold treatment”. She refused to say any word to Okoro even when he made attempts to speak to her. She even refused to greet him when she woke up in the morning. Okoro got so alienated that he decided to respond to his wife’s antics in his own unique way. He moved out of their bedroom and came to sleep on the floor in the parlour. He wanted to show the wife his disapproval of her actions. Interestingly, all these were happening during a honeymoon.
Many people enter into marital relationships with perverted personalities. Some are emotionally imbalanced; others are totally ignorant of interpersonal communication skills. Yet others are ill-equipped and ill-prepared for the challenges of marriage. They enter into relationships hoping that things would just work out. The truth, however, is that people work things out by knowledge. Things that break marriages may seem like common problems. Yet, these problems are potentially rooted in character imbalances and hereditary foundations. Beneath the surface of a problem lies the invisible foundation. Until these foundations are dealt with, the problem cannot be solved.
