5 Tips for A Happy Marriage

I have been blessed to grow up in a happy family. My parents are now married for over 40 years. When I got married, I determined to ensure that I give my children the same gift that my parents gave me. I believe that one of the best gift you can give your child, is a happy and healthy couples today quickly rush to the divorce court, without ever seriously working for the success of their marriage. Marriage like everything else, requires great care and patience. It’s like a garden, you have to work on it every day, patiently removing the weeds, planting good seeds, watering and nourishing it. How is it, that we can tend our garden with so much care, but allow weeds to over run our most cherished possessions – our home.
Here are 5 tips that will help to nourish and bring fulfillment to your marriage:
1. TRUST: You must learn to trust your spouse. I found this especially difficult when I newly got married. You see, my wife is really very beautiful, and am quite jealous, so I kept bugging her every time I saw her with another man. Finally I had to learn to trust her or ruin our happiness. As a direct consequence, her own trust in me, also increased.
2. TOLERANCE: You must learn to tolerate. There are bound to be differences in your opinions, behavior, and general conduct. You must not insist that everything must be seen through your eyes. Always have a formula for conflict resolution, and believe me, you will have many conflicts.
3. FORGIVENESS: There is a concept I practice, for lack of a proper name, I will call it ” Advance forgiveness”, When I meet a person that I like, I give him/her an “advance forgiveness”. What this means, is that I believe that one day, this person must offend me in one way or another. So I make up my mind to forgive, even before I have been offended. The best person to give advance forgiveness, is your spouse. Make up your mind to forgive, even before offence comes, because, you will be offended, and you will be hurt. FORGIVE.
4. CARING: Every body knows that one should care for his/her spouse, but how many people actually care? We are too busy with our work, our kids, our Facebook friends, that we actually forget our spouse. We even care more for our boss, than we do for our spouse. Think of your spouse for a change.
5. TIME-OUT: We always talk about quality time, but what we really need to do, is just spend time with our loved ones. Go for Vacations, picnics, travel to Africa, visit that cave or valley nearby. There is something magical about such time-outs, it has a way of revitalizing your relationship.
So, go back and build your home. Wish you luck.