How Stupid Are You?

Part 9 of Two Become One: The Prelude to a Joy-Filled Marriage

“How stupid are you?”

Bethany hadn’t meant for it to come out like that. But the second she saw the overdrawn bank notification, her mouth moved faster than her heart.

Peter froze in the hallway, holding the baby’s formula. He had stopped for it after work, still wearing the shirt he’d sweated through while unloading shipments at the store. He stared at her, blinking hard.

“Stupid? Did you just call me stupid?”

Bethany didn’t answer at first. She looked away, ashamed — but still angry.

Peter’s voice was quiet now, but it cracked with something deeper than frustration. “You remember that time you locked your keys in the car and had to call the locksmith? Or when you ran out of gas, and I drove 20 minutes with the gas can?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t call you stupid. Not once.”

Bethany felt something inside her clench. Because she remembered. Not just those moments, but others… moments from her childhood.

Her mother calling her father an idiot for forgetting to pay the cable bill.

Snapping at him for losing his keys.

Slamming cabinets while muttering things like “I swear you’ve got oatmeal for brains.”

She hadn’t realized how much of that had settled into her.

How easy it was to repeat what she’d heard growing up.

Peter sat down on the couch, setting the formula on the coffee table like a white flag.

“It’s just groceries, Beth. I wasn’t being careless. I forgot we had that auto-payment scheduled. It’s my fault. I’m not saying it’s not. But I’m doing the best I can.”

There was a long silence.

Bethany sat down too. She looked at the man she married — the man who had spent his last $40 on formula — and for once, she didn’t try to explain herself. She just listened.

“We can’t keep talking to each other like this,” she whispered.

Some things we say in anger.

Some things we say because they were said to us.

But once they’re out… we can never unsay them.

The Bible says:

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” — Proverbs 18:21

Words can kill a moment… or a marriage.

Peter looked over at Bethany and took a breath.

“You ever read that verse in Ephesians? ‘Let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth… only what’s good for building others up.’”

He rubbed his hands together. “I’m not trying to quote scripture at you like I’ve got it all together. I just… I’ve been feeling like we’re tearing each other down more than we’re building anything.”

Bethany nodded. “You’re not wrong. I feel it too.”

She paused. “I think I owe you an apology.”

Peter looked up. “I think I owe you one too.”

Bethany and Peter didn’t pray together that night. They didn’t have a Bible study. They didn’t post a selfie and write #blessed.

But they talked.

They apologized.

And for the first time in a long time, they spoke to each other — not at each other.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am only a noisy gong…” — 1 Corinthians 13:1

They didn’t fix everything that night. But they remembered why they said “I do.” And they realized that the way they speak to each other after the vows matters just as much as the vows themselves.

At Notary Near Me Florida, we do more than notarize wedding paperwork.

We help couples speak life into their commitment.

As a wedding officiant and professional vow writer, I work with real couples — like Bethany and Peter — who want something deeper than a pretty ceremony. They want words that last. Words that matter. Words that build.

Whether you're planning your wedding, renewing your vows, or just trying to find your way back to each other — let’s create something worth speaking over and over again.

Because what you say today can shape the kind of marriage that brings…

Joy for a Lifetime.