Home & Family Facts and Notes

When somebody in our famly gets married, our patriarch, my grandfather is always requested to give a speech on secrets to a good marriage. The thing about it is that he gives the same speech every time he is asked to deliever a speech.

The secret to a good marriage according to him is S.A.L.T. Usually he begins with this story.

An old king one day asked his three daughters how much they loved him. The first daughter said that he loved his father as much as she loves all the gold in the kingdom. The second daughter said that he loved her father as much she loves all the silver in the kingdom. The king was so delighted with both of his daugters. Finally the youngest daughter was asked how much she loves him. The youngest daughter said that she loves her father as much as she loves salt. The king was furious with this response, imagine comapring her love to that of the lowly salt. So she banished her youngest to serve in the kitchen.

The king’s youngest daughter the instructed the cook not to put salt in all the king’s dishes. Because of this the king slowly loss his appetite for the food that was served that he became very sick. He then asked the cook to explain why the food is not as tasty as before. The cook then told him that his youngest daughter instructed her not to put salt in all the king’s dishes. When the king heard this, he was furious. He asked his youngest daughter to explain her actions. She explained to her father that she was only demonstrating how much she loved him. The old king finally finally realized how important salt is. He finally understood that his youngest daughter loved him so much more than her two sisters.

With that introduction, my grandfather then goes to the main topic that is the keys to a successful, loving and a good marriage which is “SALT.” He then goes to the body of his message by giving meanings to each letter of the word SALT.

S - Share - Each of the couple must remember that when they get married, they are considered as one flesh. They must share whatever blessings they have individually with each other. They must not be selfish. Above all they must think of sharing not only physical things with each other but experiences as well. Sharing should also refer to the burdens and responsibilities in family life.

A - Attention - Couples must give attention to each other. While it is all right to spend some time with friends and other interest, most of our time and interest must be spent with our family especially with our spouses. Oftentimes we hear a familiar story wherein the husband complains that the wife keeps on chatting with her friends on the phone or going out with friends. On the other hand wives complains that their husbands just comes home and sits in front of the T.V watching sports or worst comes home very early, that is early in the morning because he was out with his buddies for a drinking spree.

L - Live within your means - Statistics has shown that the number one cause of quarrels between couples is money problems. Before and after marriage, each couple must sit down and set some guidelines as to how money should be handled. In order to avoid any serious conflict, a budget has to be set and expenses should be contained within the budget without also forgetting to set aside some money for emergency savings and investments.

T - Trust - When you fail to trust your spouse it shatter his or her confidence thereby limiting his or her capacity to succeed in any endevour in life. That is why trust is considered as the foundation for any good marriage.

The principle of S.A.L.T may be simplistic but it worked for my grandfather and grandmother because they had a good marriage for the past 50 years. It is my hope and my prayer that you will learn something from it and that you will have a good marriage as well.

Tags: home and family, family