Blake R. Templeton argues that wives value genuine presence over financial success or material comfort. His wife once told him she'd rather live in a cardboard box with him than occupy a big house without him. He outlines five practices for presence: eye contact, vulnerability, intentionality, patience, and focused attention.
And that's what I'm saying. Like, she doesn't need perfection. Your girl wants presence. Connection beats performance every time. But like, the enemy is telling the guy, like, man, you've got to perform. You got to go make more money. You got to go do this because somehow that's going to save the marriage. My wife told me one time, I would rather live in a cardboard box and have you with me than have the big house and not have you at all. A guy needs to understand, instead of trying to get it right, instead of like trying to go build the thing and perform and go make more money, your girl wants your Presence, to show up fully with eye contact. And for a guy, that's something we have to actually practice. We've got to like open ourselves up and like be vulnerable. We've got to actually give intentionality. We've got to like stretch our patience. We've got to actually be more desirable to her by showing her our love more. We've got to actually give her more attention. We've got to actually like stretch our capacity for actually being an intentional man. An intentional man gets presence because your girl doesn't need perfection.
