10 Ways to Improve Your Marriage

Marriage can be the most rewarding human relationship that any of us experience. However, like most things that have tremendous potential for good, it can also have a large potential to create misery. Here are 10 specific thoughts, critical patterns to develop to make your marriage healthier.

1. How you talk about your spouse externally affects your relationship internally, so make sure it is good news you are sharing about your partner, not just the complaints.
2. Let your spouse do things differently than you and then be sure to assume that it isn’t the wrong way. Be grateful for what they do.
3. Assume the best intentions out of your spouse. Often, they mean well, but they are different than you. Sometimes, even assuming the best encourages the right intentions.
4. Encourage your spouse’s gifts and inspire confidence in them. Lean in to their interests, not away from them.
5. When you love yourself well, you love your spouse well too. We all need time to reflect and recharge. Don’t ignore your own feelings, deal with them in a healthy way.
6. Make your home a sanctuary. Nobody wants to live on a battlefield. Work together to create a peaceful rhythm.
7. Think about what your spouse loves, and love them how they want to be loved. Don’t make the mistake of thinking they love all the same things that you do.
8. Handle your stuff and believe your spouse can handle it too. Don’t compare roles. Both of you do different things, both of you should assume that the other could succeed if the roles were reversed.
9. Speak up. Talk and listen to one another. Specifically ask your spouse, “How can I help?”
10. Do “it.” Yep, intimacy is still important and it has to be a regular part of your marriage.