“Marriage is not a noun; it’s a verb. It isn’t something you get. It’s something you do. It’s the way you love your partner every day.” Barbara De Angelis
Just like we can have good days and bad days, married life can have days were it’s good or great and days where it’s bad. There are things that we can do today that will strengthen the future of our marriage. Strengthening our marriage will make the good days great and allows us to handle the bad days.
My wife and I work on this all the time. Just looking on the outside, we’ve had people comment on how happy we are. Or how it doesn’t look like we have any problems or issues.
What I tell people is that just because of our personalities and the good times that we have doesn’t mean we don’t have issues we have to work through. The key is that we work through them. We always look for ways to strengthen ourselves and our marriage.
Here are some things that you can start today that will strengthen your marriage.
- Make your relationship a priority. It can be surprising how selfish we really can be. It doesn’t matter whether you’re newlyweds or have been married for 50 years, selfishness will continue to try and creep in.
Even in our conversations we can be selfish. Make a conscious effort to change your “I’s” to “we’s.” Just being aware, will bring to your attention how selfish we can be even in our conversations.
- Have a couples ritual. Strengthening your marriage will require you to do some things that you’re not used to. Men, this means you’re probably going to have to talk more than you think. To take your marriage to a higher level, to strengthen it, to build something that will last means that you have to do things outside the status quo. Men open up to your wife. Connect with her on a daily basis.
- Have a daily check in. To make this easy and fun have a set of things that you cover in your daily check ins. This will keep the conversation fresh and not the normal “How’s your day going?” text message. Here are some conversation topics that can be included in your check ins.
- Appreciate something about each other
- Offer up some new information about your day
- Tell them a hope that you have, big or small. (I hope we can see the new movies this weekend).
Strengthening your marriage isn’t something that happens overnight, but adding these things you will start to notice the change that can take place over time.
How do you strengthen your marriage?
