Miss Julia Renews Her Vows by Ann B. Ross

Author:Ann B. Ross [Ross, Ann B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780143118565
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2010-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Dr. Fowler started off by telling us that marriage is a sacred covenant designed by God to demonstrate the relationship of Christ and his church. Nothing new there, I thought.

He went on speaking in a soft and persuasive tone so that the sound of his voice curled around us as we all quieted and strained to hear—a psychological trick, I thought to myself, to keep our attention.

He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. “Art thou bound to a husband? Then you must render unto your husband his due, for the marriage bed is undefiled. Seek not to be loosed, for a wife must not depart from her husband.”

He sat back and smiled as if he’d proclaimed a precept we’d never heard of. Unfortunately for him, most of us had. Shocked at how he’d paraphrased and conflated Scripture, I glanced at Emma Sue, who knew her Bible backward and forward. She was staring at him, her mouth open, a look of amazement on her face. Then she bent to her legal pad and began scribbling as fast as she could.

Without looking up, she whispered, “Write, Julia. Get it all down.”

I glanced at her notes, then tried to catch up by jotting down what I remembered. But by that time, Dr. Fowler was rattling on with a full head of steam, and I’d missed how he’d gotten there.

“Has your marriage grown stale?” he asked, as if he already knew the answer. “Are the fires dying down? Do you wonder where the passion has gone? Have you ever asked yourself, ‘Is this all there is?’ Has your coming together become a growing apart? Then,” Dr. Fowler said, his voice gaining strength as he rose to his feet, “then, you are in the grip of one or more of the insidious marriage busters. And what is a marriage buster? It’s anything done, or not done, to hurt your spouse.”

He sighed dramatically, then resumed in his quiet voice. “I could list twelve of them, but we’re limited in our time together, so I’m only going to speak of one, the worst one. And that is refusing your husband the comfort of the marriage bed, or, just about as bad, enduring rather than participating in that comfort. Do you push him away? Are you too tired or too sick? Do you roll your eyes? Make a cutting remark that lessens and deflates him? Your unwilling or lackadaisical response to his needs will bust up a marriage quicker than anything.”

Emma Sue leaned close and whispered, “Is he talking about what I think he’s talking about?”

I nodded, my mouth stretched so thin and tight I couldn’t get a word out.

“There is no other blessing under the sun,” Dr. Fowler declaimed, “more to be desired and honored and practiced than that of the physical coming together of a man and wife. It is the physical and spiritual communion of two entities. Now I’m going to give you a news flash: men are different from women.” He stopped then and smiled, awaiting the ripple of laughter that a few granted him.

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