By Charles Ighele
In every relationship there are bound to be times of disagreements and quarrels. These areas of disagreements and quarrels have caused many people their marriages. Some men might quarrel with their wives because they did not prepare the meal on time. Some wives will quarrel with their husbands because they did not put their shoes or shirts or suits at the appropriate place.

It must be said that in every relationship, your partner must do something you may not like. When your wife offends you, what do you do? When your husband offends you, what do you do? Do you keep malice? Do you deny him or her sex? Do you deliberately stay away at work longer than you used to, thereby denying your spouse your comfort, warmth and presence. Do you as the man go about drinking with your friends? Do you as the woman also stop preparing the meal at home? Or when you even do, you leave him to serve himself. Do you stop doing his laundry alongside yours? Do you leave your bedroom to another room? Some spouses even give their partners what is the “silent treatment.”

I would like to state unequivocally here that none of the afore mentioned post quarreling treatments would in any way help settle the disagreement or quarrel. Rather, it would further strain your relationship and give room to the devil to penetrate into your love life.

In situations like this, I have often times stated that it is the more matured of the spouses that should budge and make peace with the spouse. When this is done the door is shut against the devil from ministering evil things.

Maturity here has nothing to do with age. Maturity is a thing of the mind. When you keep malice with your partner or give the “silent treatment” to your partner you are only giving an opening to the devil in your life. After apologising to your partner, you could bring up that issue later in a more relaxed ambience filled with joy, love and romance.

Keeping malice or giving the “silent treatment” or denying each other love/romantic treats is not mature. Love you!

When there is a quarrel between spouses, it is the more mature in the relationship that makes the first move towards resolving the issue. Love you!

• Bishop Charles Ighele is the General Superintendent of Holy Spirit Mission, Lagos.