I've come to view conflict as good. Most people, however, don't view conflict as good. Why do I?

Whenever you put two unique individuals together, you're going to have two persons who don't come at every situation in exactly the same way. He has grown up around two unique individuals, and she has grown up around two unique individuals. There are going to be substantial differences.

As a matter of fact, they're going to have all kinds of places where the two of them take a unique perspective on things. It's in the management of those unique perspectives that we have what could be called conflict. However, the management of that conflict can turn out to be a stair step raising you to a higher and higher level of marital satisfaction every time you manage the conflict well.

Here's my concern: If you don't have conflict, it's almost always because of one of two things:

1. One person has decided to let the other person do all the managing of the relationship. In other words, two people are living one person's life. My mother was a little bit like that. My mother was a simple woman, very loving and kind, and she was always good to me and good to everybody.

My dad was a real strong guy and he was the most powerful person in my life. My dad, without knowing it, had a way, especially in the early phases of the relationship, of almost always being in control of everything that happened. My mom managed to endure that for a while.

But I noticed that she started having all kinds of headaches and body problems of various kinds. I really believe, although we didn't know about this in Iowa where we grew up, that my mother was depressed.

That almost always happens for a person who allows another person to control them. If two persons are living one person's life, not having any conflict, one person is going to end up resentful and depressed and hurt. They're going to feel real empty inside.