The Night That Almost Cost Me My Marriage: A Lesson in Relationship Resilience

Introduction: The importance of pivotal moments in relationships

You may have heard me say before that it’s really difficult to mess up when you’re doing the right thing, especially at the start of a relationship. During the initial courtship phase, it’s important to pay attention to how easy and natural your connection feels with the other person. That’s how it was with my wife when we first started dating - everything felt effortless, we connected well, and we laughed a lot.

But as we moved into a more serious phase of our relationship, exploring whether this was the person we wanted to spend our lives with, things got more complicated. Relationships are like trees — they take a long time to grow, but only moments to chop down. And there was one pivotal decision moment that almost cost me my wife and the amazing family I have today.

I want to share this story with you, hoping it will give you a tool to use when you find yourself at a similar crossroads in your own relationships.

Setting the scene: A poorly planned New Year’s Eve

It was New Year’s Eve, and I had completely dropped the ball on making plans. Usually, I’m the guy who comes up with great, creative, adventurous ideas. But this time, I had nothing.