Below are 5 useful and practical tips on how to keep the flame burning in a marriage.
Commit to Loving Your Partner
Unlike the fairy tale romances displayed on the television, movies and novels, love at its core is a decision that a person makes to be committed to another person. Feelings usually come and go but if a decision is made to commit, then it lasts through the eternity of time. This commitment is what forms the bedrock of a healthy marriage.
Marriage involves a commitment between two people to stick by each other’s side through hills and valleys and through good and bad moments. When everything in life is rosy, commitment is easy. However, true love is displayed when the bond of commitment remains strong when you are going through tough times. Marriage is hard but worth it.
Stay Sexually Faithful
In marriage, sexual faithfulness is more than just physical intimacy. Sexual faithfulness includes staying loyal in thoughts, what you see, the heart and the soul. When a person has sexual fantasies, they are being sexually unfaithful to their spouse. Even when offering emotional intimacy to another person, you are usually sacrificing sexual faithfulness to your spouse.
To keep your marriage strong, you should guard your sexuality and only devote yourself to your partner. To be sexually faithful, you have to be disciplined and aware of the consequences if you are not faithful to your spouse. It is important to avoid doing anything that can compromise your sexual faithfulness to your partner.
Practice Humility
We are human and as such we have weaknesses. Nothing brings our weaknesses to the fore more than a relationship. One of the best ways to sustain a strong and healthy marriage is to accept that you are not perfect, you may make mistakes and that you will need forgiveness from your spouse. If you display superiority over your spouse, disagreements and resentment will crop up in your relationship with your spouse hence hindering the development of your relationship.
If you have trouble exercising humility, you should take a pen and enumerate three things that your partner does better than you. This will help you in appreciating their strengths and staying humble.
Be Patient and Forgive Your Partner
As discussed above, no one is perfect. As such, a marriage requires a lot of patience and forgiveness. Partners who have successful marriages usually show a lot of patience when their spouses display shortcomings and they are always ready to forgive. In successful marriages, spouses admit that they have their own faults and do not each other to be perfect. Past errors are not usually dredged up so as to hold each other hostage for past mistakes.
When mistakes occur, partners in a good marriage do all they can to make amends and avoid revenge. Forgiveness sets the heart free and helps a relationship develop and become stronger.
- Invest Time in The Marriage
No marriage can work if the partners are unwilling to invest time in growing their relationship. Successful marriages usually require that two people choose to intentionally spend quality time together. Remember that you cannot have quality time without spending a lot of time with your partner.
The relationship with your spouse should be the deepest and most intimate relationship you are engaged in. As such, you should dedicate most of time to the marriage. Ideally, you should set aside some time in your day to be with your partner. Once in a while, you should consider having fun activities together such as date night.
