Rules Became a To-due List by Habit

A tyrannical husband demanded that his wife conform to rigid standards of his choosing. She was to do certain things for him as a wife, mother, and homemaker. In time she came to hate him and his list of rules and regulations. Then, one day her husband died. Later, she fell in love with another man and married him. She and her new husband lived on a perpetual honeymoon. Joyfully, she devoted herself to his happiness and welfare. One day she ran across one of the sheets of dos and don’ts of her first husband. To her amazement she found that she was doing for her second husband all the things her first husband had demanded of her, even though her new husband had never once suggested them. She did them as an expression of love for him and a desire to please him.” (Illustrations Unlimited (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1988), p. 501).