For many people, their marriage is the most important relationship in their life. Your marriage can be an excellent place to find support, love, and understanding. However, like all relationships, marriages must be maintained in order to continue running smoothly. It's never too early to try to improve your marriage, whether you've been married for one year or for sixty years. Here are four tips you can use to better your marriage:
1. Have deep conversations.
It's important to make time for conversations with your spouse. Especially when you have children, it's easy to fall into a rut of only discussing household matters. While it's good to talk about your children's progress in school and household chores, your marriage will suffer if those are the only conversations you have. Have conversations with your spouse about your hopes and fears, your thoughts and dreams. This will deepen and strengthen your relationship.
2. Argue productively.
Disagreements are unavoidable in marriage. You and your spouse won't always see eye to eye. It's healthy and normal to have arguments, but you should make sure your arguments are productive rather than hurtful. Learn to discuss your disagreements in calm ways that aren't judgmental or accusatory. Try to avoid bringing up past mistakes, since this can lead to defensiveness and anger. If you and your spouse have already established unhealthy communication patterns, a marriage counselor can help. If you and your spouse are both people of faith, a Christian marriage counselor can serve you by helping you to work on your marriage in a faith-based environment
3. Participate in joint spiritual practices.
Most Christians place their relationship with God in a central position in their life. You and your spouse can grow closer to one another by pursuing your spiritual practices together. Take the time to pray together as a couple. Praying for one another can be a powerful way to become more compassionate, selfless, and understanding toward each other. Reading the Bible together can give you a lot of food for thought, and discussing your reading will generate a lot of unique and new conversational topics.
4. Maintain outside friendships.
If you and your spouse don't have supportive friends outside your marriage, your marital relationship can suffer. Good, strong friendships allow each person to find support during troubling times. Make time to maintain your friendships both as a couple and as individuals. A healthy marriage needs a community to support it, and communities are made up of friends and families.
