When my older kids were little I used to tell them stories about the boy who liked to do things the hard way. If his mother asked him to wash the dishes he would tote them outside on his remote control car, use a Tonka truck to plop them in the kiddie pool, slosh the water with a hand mixer until they were clean, hang them on the clothesline and squirt them with a hose for the final rinse then transport them back in the house again. His mother would usually check on him half way through the process.

"Are you done washing the dishes yet? It's been two hours."

"No mom, I'm doing it my way." She would shake her head and get back to her own tasks.

He always found a way to make a simple process difficult.

There is a man who posted a list of ways to treat your wife. He learned it the hard way, through getting divorced. His wisdom is sparkling clean though.

• Never blame her
• Take responsibility for your own emotions
• Always keep courting her
• Don't try to fix her
• Give her space
• Be vulnerable
• Don't worry about money
• Forgive immediately

The list went viral, getting hundreds of thousands of shares on Facebook. Perhaps his failure benefited other marriages. But it also blessed him. Even though his relationship died prematurely, what he learned will stay with him to eternity. Those are lessons worth dying for.

 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16