(Update: All the posts of this series have been collected into one piece, Seven Reasons Women Stay in Abusive Relationships, and How to Defeat Each One of Them.)
Last time, in the course of looking at the role that fear of public embarrassment often plays in keeping a woman mired in a bad relationship, we considered the ideas that no one really cares all that much about what happens with other people’s relationships anyway, and that, at any rate, the reaction of those around you to a cataclysm in your personal life is an unbeatable way to find out who your friends really are.
Today I want to say this: Anyone outside of your marriage who has anything to say about your marriage has no idea what they’re talking about.
They don’t know you. They don’t know your concerns. They don’t know your life.
They don’t know your husband.
Of all the things they don’t know, they sure don’t know your husband.
They don’t know how he sincerely he apologizes to you. They don’t know how loving he can act toward you. They don’t know anything about the private history of your relationship with him.
Nothing. Zilch. When it comes to the reality of your marriage, they’re as dumb as dumb gets.
Moreover, they don’t know anything about you. What do they know about your life? What do they know about how you were raised? What do they know about your father, your mother, the house you grew up in?
People who dare to critically judge others—and especially if they judge suffering people who are trying to improve their lives—are in for one interesting conversation with God come their personal Judgment Day.
Your life is yours. And you’re the only one on this planet who knows jack about it.
Let ’em talk, if they’re that weak. It’s the babble of a brook that keeps running by.
You’ve got your own (new!) life to lead.
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