5 Ways to Ensure Your Husband Will Never Want to Serve Others as a Family

I received an email containing this statement:

“I want our family to shift focus from us to others, but my husband has no interest.”

This wasn’t the first time a note with the same idea found its way to my inbox.

Sometimes notes to strangers are easier to send than notes to those you love.

When I hear sentiments like the one above, I wish hard that I held a secret recipe for change, and I could send you running to the store, list in hand, change attainable.

But, of course, no such list exists.

The above email made me think of my husband, and how I rarely mention him here, and that maybe you think he's not involved in our attempt to move from addicted to ourselves to devoted to others. Not true.

So, meet Shane.

He's the rational part of the Sullivan family. The one who tells me that real change happens slowly. The one who balances my wild ideas with wild prayer. The one who taught me about another kind of list, a scientifically proven, sure to make your husband uber resistant to serving others kind of list.

I've never actually acted out behaviors listed below. Ahem. You know, this is hypothetically speaking, of course. Here's my top five ways to ensure your husband will never want to serve others as a family:

1.  Ask him if he ever thinks of others first. (Stress the ever part).

2.  Schedule a family service day during fantasy football playoffs.

3.  Talk nonstop the minute he walks in the door about the latest book you’ve discovered that will change his life.

4.  Sign him up for something he totally doesn’t want to do, especially if it involves crafts.

5.  Pour on the guilt.

Question for you: What can you do to ensure your spouse will do the exact opposite of what you want?

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Linking with Jen.