Barely three weeks after my son’s wedding and honeymoon, I noticed his rather unusual “stopping by” at my place on his way home in the evenings. I thought he was just missing his original home. I asked him why but he gave no reasonable answer. He always asked for food when he came around, that was rather odd for a newly married man.
On his fourth visit, he came with one of his friends who was well known to me. I confided in his friend, who simply told me that our new wife “cannot cook”. In fact, on the days he doesn’t stop by, he eats at that his friend’s house or he eats out. This was fire on the mountain, the choice was between me encouraging him to eat outside with another woman and eventually end his marriage or save the day. I opted for the latter.
When he showed up again on Friday evening, I told him to tell his wife to see me on Saturday morning, we needed to go somewhere together, it was a woman’s thing. She came as I requested and I told her I was entertaining my club members and needed to cook for them. She was to assist me with the shopping for the cooking. I noticed the fright on her face.
After returning home from the shopping, I told her she wasn’t cooking because the people involved had very peculiar tastes, she was however to pay attention to all that I did in the kitchen. We finished (or I finished) all the cooking in about four hours. I made four different soups that I knew my son loved, made stew and laced everything with chicken, fish and beef. I added some steaming joll of rice to it. After finishing, I told her to divide everything we cooked into two equal portions. She was surprised when I told her to take one portion with her when she was going home. I knew the food would last about six weeks, and as predicted, my son did not show up at my door until week seven. I knew the food had finished. I repeated the same process again, telling him to tell his wife to see me when he got home.
By the third time we did this, I let her do the cooking whilst I supervised her. I never mentioned anything to her. By the fifth time, she had gotten a hang of things, even better than I imagined. On her way home, she hugged me passionately and said “Thank you Mum, you saved my marriage and you never even scolded me.” I am told that with my son’s encouragement, she is now contemplating on opening a restaurant.
Rather than being the catalyst to scatter my son’s marriage, I opted for encouraging them in love for them to attain better understanding.
Encourage someone in love today, you just might be saving something very fundamental.
*Have a blessed day.*