3 Must Have Marriage Habits

3 Must Have Marriage Habits

Do you have any habits in your marriage? Have you ever even thought about whether you do, and if so, what they even are?

There’s always been a whole lot of focus on motivation and goals, but the real key to changing your life and your marriage is found in your daily habits. It’s those little things you do—or don’t do, over time that impact your life the most.

If you want your marriage to last, a big part of that will be investing in habits that will encourage longevity. It’s about making daily, weekly, monthly efforts in caring for one another and your marriage.

 3 Must Have Habits

 Are you in the habit of treating one another with respect, or have you found yourself lately being kinder to strangers than each other? How you speak to one another is huge. Proverbs 18:21a tells us that, “The tongue has power of life and death”. Respect speaks life, disrespect doesn’t. Speaking life also avoids a lot of unnecessary conflict. If you want to learn how to do that in 3 minutes, check out How to Avoid Conflict in your Marriage in 3 Minutes. 

Are you making physical contact each day, or are your heads hitting the pillows at night with the realization that you never shared one kiss or one hug all day—or maybe you just read this and had the thought that “I can’t even remember the last time we touched.”

Those good morning and goodnight kisses, those car ride handholds, and those hugs for no special reason, add up over time and all make for healthy marriages. They also make for healthier and longer physical connections too! Don’t let a 5 second kiss be too much to invest—make physical contact a daily habit.

Lastly, are you communicating each day? Do you discuss your day, your thoughts, and feelings with one another? Is your communication stagnant, or does it seem to keep getting stolen by the busyness of running a home and having children?

 Communication is foundational for marriage. So much so, that if you don’t have it, we strongly recommend you grab our Restoring Connection Plan, a 4-week, 10 minute a day, strategy to get connection and communication back to where they need to be. Go ahead and use code PINTEREST10 for 10% off

 Good communication breeds great connection, and great connection breeds trust, marital satisfaction, and longevity.

Take a moment to pause and evaluate your daily habits and ask yourself what direction they’re taking you and your marriage in? Is it a direction you want to go?

Next Step–Discuss this topic with your spouse. 

Do you feel like you are all alone in your marriage?

Are your schedules so busy with work and taking care of your family that you are simply too tired to connect?

Wouldn’t it be great if you could move from exhausted and alone to connected and supported?

To feel like you were part of a team?

Use Coupon Code: PINTEREST10
for 10% off the regular price.

Verses for a Christ Centered Marriage

Verses for a Christ Centered Marriage

One of the best ways to have a Christ centered marriage is to become two individuals who seek to follow Him.

This rightfully places the Lord directly in the center of your marriage. Having Him in the center allows direction, growth, and humility to flow freely, all while making your marriage one of the most rewarding relationships you have.

5 Scriptures for a Christ-Centered Marriage

  • You are better and stronger together, and even better and stronger with the Lord. “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12 
  • You will always have things vying for your attention, time, and efforts. Make sure your marriage remains one of your highest priorities. Many marriages drift apart long before they ever explode in destruction. Stay on guard. “Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Mark 10”9
  • The more you love your spouse as a verb in action, the easier it will be to forgive and to let go of some of their flaws and mistakes. “Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8
  • Setting up appropriate boundaries with extended family is a must. You’re living a 2 becoming 1 life, not a 2 becoming 3, 4,5 & 6 life. This can be tricky. If you’re getting stuck with this, check out The Expedition Marriage podcast, Episode 44, Setting Boundaries with In Laws. “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24
  • Always remember what real love is. It’s so much more than the big feelings you had that led you into your marriage. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”
    1 Corinthians 13:4-5

When you seek to follow Jesus, you will forever be being transformed more and more to his likeness. Your goal as a spouse is to help support your spouse in doing the same. If you’d like a great way to make Christ the center of your marriage, be sure to check out the Newlywed Couples Devotional, a 52 week biblically based devotional filled with scripture and application. It’s practical, it’s filled with truth, conversation starters and prayer… and it’s not just for newlyweds!  

Newlywed Couple's Devotional

(for Newlywed Couples and Newlywed Wanna-Be's)

features:

•  52 Weekly Devotionals that explore common issues and themes every couple experiences, such as intimacy, love, commitment, household duties, finances, and more

•  Everyday Scripture and Reflective Bible Studies that provide practical solutions to bringing marriages closer to God

•  Action-Oriented Discussion Prompts that hold couples accountable for maintaining their God-anchored vows

•  Weekly Prayers that are specific and relevant to the topics discussed

3 Warning Signs of Bad Communication in Your Marriage

3 Warning Signs of Bad Communication in Your Marriage

How is communication going in your marriage?
Are you finding yourselves frequently going round and round and never arriving at a point of resolution?
Do you keep getting caught up in the same arguments over and over?
How about this one—you just can’t seem to have a discussion that doesn’t involve elevated emotions or things rapidly getting escalated…

The bad news is that you’re likely stuck in a rut, BUT, the good news is, you can get out! 

The truth is, there actually might be good reasons why you’re getting stuck. You might be simply missing these 3 big warning signs in your communication pattern. (For more on this topic, check out the Expedition Marriage podcast series on Communication Killers and their Kryptonite).

3 Warning Signs of Bad Communication

Harsh startups—You may not even know it, but you might be creating a bad outcome within the first few minutes of your conversation. It will serve you well to pay attention to how you might be initiating when you’re trying to communicate things to your spouse. How is your tone? Are your words accusatory? Are you complaining or blaming right out of the gate? 

If so, these are sure fire ways to position your spouse on the defense instead of positioning them to listen and receive. Be sure that when you start a conversation you pause beforehand long enough to gather your thoughts and be intentional. Speak with kindness and purpose from a non-accusatory place. This will help make it much easier for your spouse to listen to whatever it is you have to say.

Making Assumptions—This one is easy to fall prey to. You may not even realize how much you might be labeling your spouse’s intentions, motives, and actions. You might assume without any confirmation that they’re doing or saying things to intentionally upset you, or perhaps because they don’t care.
When assumptions enter in it becomes very easy to switch over to a harsh set up instead of a soft one. “You never help around the house. You could care less how tired I am!”, “I’m tired of your work being more important than me. Your job is all you care about.” 
Instead of assuming things about your spouse, which by the way, assumptions are often negative, why not try clarifying with them. “I’m frustrated that you don’t help around the house. It feels like you don’t care about how tired I am. Is that true?”, “It upsets me how much time you spend working. It’s beginning to feel like your job is more important than your family. Is that what’s happening?”

Ask a clarifying question and put assumptions to rest. Those negative assumptions will otherwise always lead you in a communication ditch.

Emotional reactivity—Emotions can get the best of you, and me, if we’re not careful. They will lead us to react instead of respond. The second you get emotionally elevated is the same second you stop being productive in communication. Emotional reactivity shuts down your problem-solving skills, your empathy, and your ability to move towards listening and resolving. 

Before you initiate communication, take all the time you need to gather yourself and regroup. Being upset is ok and often necessary, but communicating while being emotionally elevated is just not productive and often will encourage your spouse to back away from you more than it will encourage them to move towards you.

 

Good communication in marriage is a must. It’s a big component to keeping you connected and secure as a couple. If you’re interested in learning more on how to have healthy communication and how to reconnect as a couple, be sure to check out our Restoring Connection Plan, a 4 week communication journey to deeper and richer connection between you and your spouse. For a 15% discount use code SUBSCRIBER15.

How to Avoid Conflict in Your Marriage in 3 Minutes

How to Avoid Conflict in Your Marriage in 3 Minutes

Did you know that the first 3 minutes of a disagreement determines how that conversation will end? It’s true, 96% of the time it’s what takes place in those minutes that will dictate whether resolution is found, or conflict is started. 
Think about it; with 55% of communication being your body language, 38% of it being your tone, and only 7% of it your words, that gives you a lot of likely unused potential to have more healthy communication.

It is clear that the “how” of your argument is more powerful than the “what” of it. So, any of that “right fighting” you may have been doing, isn’t your friend if resolution is your goal. Which btw, if you find yourself falling into the trap of right fighting, you need to check out Episode 59 of the podcast, The Problem with Right Fighting.
With all that being said, let’s make this practical. If getting to resolution is your desired outcome, here are some ways to help you achieve that goal, especially if you incorporate them within that 3-minute time zone.

How to set up a disagreement for success:

  • Watch your body language. Relax your arms, face forward, don’t roll those eyes around, and make eye contact.
  • Control your tone. Speak to one another as if someone you greatly respect was listening to this interaction. As Christians, this is always how we should respond because we do have someone very important always watching us. 
  • Don’t interrupt. That includes not interrupting with body language and tone too. Huffing and puffing, turning away, picking up your phone, or walking away to give your attention elsewhere. These will all indicate that you don’t care how your spouse feels.
  • Lean in and listen. If you start these 3-minutes well, there will be time to share your side and your thoughts too. No need to rush to get your point across first.
  • Stick to the topic at hand. Don’t get derailed into what’s happened before or how things used to be, or what your spouse has done in the past.

Your goal in your marriage shouldn’t be just to prove your points or have your side of the story heard, it should be about trying to achieve a win for both of you. You’re going to be different, you’re going to have different thoughts, ideas, and opinions, and that’s entirely okay, its actually good. Two whole individuals will always make the healthiest of marriages.

If you’ve been struggling with communication in your marriage or just feel disconnected from your spouse, be sure to check out the Restoring Connection Plan, a 4 week strategy to enjoying deeper and richer connection in your marriage. Find out more below.

3 Habits to Start for a Healthy and Happy Marriage

3 Habits to Start for a Healthy and Happy Marriage

3 Habits to Start for a Healthy and Happy Marriage

Healthy marriages don’t just happen by chance. That may be one of the biggest blindsides you learned after getting married. You, like me, probably fell prey to thinking that this wonderful love connection you have as a couple will carry you through to your happily ever after, only to find out that your Mr. Wonderful isn’t always so wonderful, and this marriage thing is going to require patience and some work.
But no worries, that’s where the incredibly beautiful things happen in marriage. Love will require work, but it’s that work that changes you and that often changes them. 

To have a healthy and successful marriage, you’re going to need more than just a wish and some goals. It’s going to require instilling some good habits into your daily married life. There are things you can do every day that will set your marriage up to be one of the most thriving and connected relationships you’ll have. 

3 Habits for a Healthy Marriage

Daily communication—Relationships aren’t silent. Life can get mundane, busy, and put on auto pilot. You must make the daily habit of coming together and talking face to face without distraction. You can do this in the morning with your coffee, over a lunch break or when you put the kids down in the evening. Just pause long enough to give one another undivided attention.

Honesty and vulnerability—Every day you must choose to be honest with one another with how you’re feeling, what’s bothering you, and what your real needs are. Don’t withhold or hide things going on in your life, invite your spouse in on these things. Be honest with them if they’re doing something that is bothering you. If you withhold these things, you will only be allowing bitterness and resentment an open invitation in your marriage.

Active listening—If you want connection in your marriage, you will need a lot of intentional listening. This one seems simple, but really, none of us are truly naturally good at it. Listening is a practiced skill, but it can be a game changer in your marriage.

 

These three habits for a healthy marriage are foundational, but above them all, keeping Christ in the center of your marriage is most important. Two individuals who invest in personal one on one time with the Lord will always make for the best marriages. As for executing these daily habits into your marriage, if you’d love some specific and intentional focus on these areas that will keep you connected as a couple, be sure to check out the Restoring Connection Plan, a 4 week daily plan to re-igniting your connection through intentional communication. It might be just what your marriage needs!

Deconstructing Marriage Myths for the Christian Couple

Deconstructing Marriage Myths for the Christian Couple

If you’re a Christian married couple, it might be difficult for you to discern what is good advice or what is bad advice for your marriage. There’s a lot of advice out there that seems sound or makes a little sense, especially when it sometimes comes from a pulpit, but some of these messages can be very destructive to your marriage.

Wrong Marriage Advice

We’ve probably all been told at one point that marriage is 50/50. If you each put in your share things will work out. Division of labor, division of love, and boom, you get that 100% happy marriage. However, this is not how Jesus operates or how He calls us to operate. If fairness were His goal, His death on the cross for our sins would not have ever been a thing. Thank God that life isn’t fair because we’d all be in trouble. 

What Jesus tells us is to shoot for that 100/100. To give, to love, to serve sacrificially. Are you going to hit that mark? Nope, probably not, but the attitude of serving over fairness is what will make your marriage good, especially when you both give that same effort.  With messages like “die to self”, “submit to one another”, and “go the extra mile” it’s hard to believe fairness was what He had in mind for us in life, much less marriage.

Speaking of fairness, husbands and wives are equal. The husband is made to be the leader of the home, not the dictator of it. Leadership does not mean the wife stays home and is at the beck and call of her husband all the time doing all that he says. It does not mean he has been given full authority over her. It means that he is to give himself up for her (Eph 5:22 & 25) just as Jesus did for us. He is to always keep in mind what is best for her and make decisions accordingly. He is to lead his family in protection, in security and in love. Both husbands and wives are called to mutually submit to one another, but the husband is the one whose leadership will be taken into account. That is a high calling and responsibility, not a governing over a wife. A husband who leads should be a husband who looks and acts a lot like Jesus.

 Another myth is that of not going to bed angry. This one comes from Eph. 4:26 that says, “In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” This verse is not telling you to not go to bed angry, what it is saying is don’t let anger cause you to sin or rule in your heart. Deal with it promptly, within a 24 hour window. Any longer than that it will get more difficult to deal with.  

If you need time to calm, to process, or to do some work with the Holy Spirit’s help, take it. Ponder it after a night’s rest so you can come back and resolve it the next day. Do not let anger take up residence in your heart and deal with it as soon as possible and you’ll be just fine.

Lastly, and one of the more common myths is have more sex with your husband to keep him from using pornography or having an affair. It is NOT a wife’s job to be responsible for her husband’s self- control or mind. Pornography is not a sex less problem, and more sex is not the answer. In fact, that belief is incredibly destructive to a wife. A wife should not be subject to providing sex for a husband who is actively engaged in adultery through pornography—Jesus’ words, not mine, Matthew 5:28. God designed sex to be fulfilling and pleasurable for both husbands and wives. Limiting it to a duty a wife must perform is destructive to its design.

If you found these deconstructed marriage myths helpful, be sure to check out the Expedition Marriage podcast, episodes 49 & 50 for more on Bad Marriage Advice.

xoxo, Chris & Jamie

4 Things You’re Missing While Trying to be Right in Your Marriage

4 Things You’re Missing While Trying to be Right in Your Marriage

Are you missing out?
Are you a right fighter? Are you married to one?
Not sure? Here are some clues: 
A right fighter will…

  • Place higher value on being right than anything else
  • Will stand their ground no matter what
  • Will argue over minor details and nit-picky things
  • Won’t stop arguing until they get the win
  • Usually gets overly emotional or amped up

While sports are a great place to fight for your win, your marriage is not. Once you got married you went from being 2 to becoming 1. The day you walked down the aisle was the last day you should be fighting for your own win. From there on out, you need to be looking for marriage wins.
If you get caught up in right fighting, there is a lot you’re missing out on. Hopefully once you see these things, you’ll realize how what you’ve been fighting for really wasn’t a win at all.

While you’re trying to be right, you’re actively teaching your spouse to pull away from you. No one wants to move close to someone that they must always defend themselves against. 

You also miss out on any personal growth. If you’re always right, why improve? If that’s not enough, there’s this; “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” Proverbs 11:2

Right fighting also consists of only thinking about what is best for you, not your spouse or your marriage. What God calls you to is to “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility, value others above yourself.” Philippians 2:3 You totally miss an opportunity to obey God, and to get a win for your spouse and your marriage.

Lastly, what you’re missing may be the most hurtful one of all. You’re missing the pain of your spouse. You’re taking a win at their expense and forcing them to take the loss. This can be hurtful and can cause your spouse to give up and shut down, which is hardly a win at all.

A win in football may get you a ring or a trophy, but a win for your marriage will have everlasting rewards. Aren’t you really wanting a win for your marriage instead?

If you want some more info on how to have conflict in a healthy way, check out the Expedition Marriage podcast series, beginning with episode 18 on How to L.O.V.E. Your Way Through Conflict. 

Enjoying the Journey is always better than being right!

 

Chris & Jamie

What to do When Marriage is Hard

What to do When Marriage is Hard

Ooof, marriage is hard…or it can be. 

In fact, while we run Expedition Marriage – a marriage ministry helping couples learn how to enjoy the journey of marriage – as marriage counselors, we certainly recognize that enjoying the journey isn’t always easy to do. BUT, if we didn’t believe it was possible, we wouldn’t be doing the work that we do with so many couples.

If you’re in a place of difficulty in your marriage, a place where you’re finding yourself exhausted from constantly working on it, confused, and having no idea what to do next, or just feeling like you’re completely unseen, then we’re glad you’re here reading this.

So yes, marriage can be hard, but it shouldn’t be that hard. If you’re finding that it is, we want to give you a couple of ideas of things to do when it is.

What to do when Marriage is Hard


Let’s start with the obvious,
get help!
On average, couples will struggle in a miserable marriage for 6 years before they decide to reach out for help.
Don’t be this couple.
If you know your marriage is in trouble, the clearest answer is to seek counseling or mentoring. 

That’s a great idea, right? But what if you’re one of those wives whose husband refuses to go to counseling? Well then, come back to this later and start here instead, Help! My Husband won’t go to Counseling.

Now, if you’re not in that deep and are feeling like you’re struggling but counseling isn’t necessarily needed, then here are some other things you want to do:

Address the issues. I know this sounds simple, but ignoring problems and sweeping them under the rug is a huge problem we see in marriages. There are so many relationships who have at least one people pleaser, conflict avoider, or sweep-it-under-the-rug kind of person in them. Those attitudes and behaviors will get you nowhere fast and they often will lead to a buildup of frustration, bitterness, and resentment.
Long story short, make sure your spouse knows what’s bothering you and that they know that you indeed are having a problem with your marriage. 

Identify the difficulty level of the problem(s). There are two types of problems in marriage, solvable ones, and gridlock ones. Solvable problems are ones where you can have a discussion, do some brainstorming for solutions, and dig in together and work for resolution. Gridlock problems are the ones that likely need a third party’s involvement. Those are the ones that get repetitive and go nowhere and continuously resurface and remain something you keep getting, well, gridlocked in. If you want to attempt some new ways of resolving conflict, check out this 4 part podcast series on How to L.O.V.E. your way through Conflict.

When marriage is hard, it’s also a great time to control your focus. Whatever you focus on, you magnify. If you’re constantly thinking about the problems or the flaws you are seeing in your spouse, then those will be the things that increase and seem bigger in your life. Try to take some time to add some gratefulness to your day and begin to look for the things your spouse is doing right instead, then let them know. Take time to remember the good days you’ve had and maybe even bring some of those memories up for conversation.

Lastly, because marriage can be hard, it’s so important that you also make time for fun. The more you constantly work on your marriage, the more your marriage will feel like nothing but work. Go out for a date that’s casual and fun. Play together, laugh together, even if it’s over a movie sitting a few feet apart on the couch, just find a way to rebuild your friendship and add in fun. 

Remember, marriage can be hard, but it shouldn’t always be hard. Please check out our website for more of our resources, articles, podcast, and our couple’s devotional. Help and hope are available, and you and your spouse deserve it.

Restoring Connection Plan

Do you feel like you are all alone in your marriage?

Are your schedules so busy with work and taking care of your family that you are simply too tired to connect?

Wouldn't it be great if you could move from exhausted and alone to connected and supported?

To feel like you were part of a team?

Regularly priced - $49.97

Use coupon code: COUPLE50 for 50% off

The Happily Date Night Box with 1st Date Night for Free and 25% off for the rest of your dates on the subscription.

We’ve been telling you of the power of having a date night, now we are giving you one for free!!!

Just pay shipping ($7.99) for your first FULLY PLANNED date night box PLUS get 25% off all other boxes for the life of the promo with code: EXPEDITIONMARRIAGE

Stop Trying to Manifest a Better Marriage

Stop Trying to Manifest a Better Marriage

Manifesting—the latest buzz word. The whole idea behind it is that if you want positive things like wealth, a dream job, healing, a great marriage, etc., is all you must do is think positive thoughts around those things, and perhaps put a few of them down on paper as if they’ve already happened, and then “POOF!”, they will be manifested into reality.

If only it were that simple!

While there’s nothing wrong with a positive mindset, in fact, as marriage counselors, we encourage them, but left on their own they’re not miracle makers. If you simply think good thoughts and never pair them with action, they will likely go nowhere.

To be honest, the concept of manifesting has some real dangers to it. Believing that positive thoughts are enough to change circumstances can be harmful because they can keep you from showing up and doing the work that indeed will change your circumstances, in this case, your marriage. They can also lead you straight to despair when your manifesting fails.

Let’s think for a minute. What about the woman with cancer who still fully believes she will be healed because that is what she is manifesting, and yet she’s not? Did she not think positively enough?

How about the wife who is manifesting her husband to quit drinking and become more invested in his marriage, yet his addiction still destroys their family? Is that on her now?

No, of course not. But this is the harm that can come from this idea.
The reality is, sometimes we can think positively AND do the work and all the right things, and bad things still happen. The truth is, there is no magic answer, but I think that might be what we all may be looking for. 

Here’s why: We don’t like pain or suffering of any kind. We don’t like living paycheck to paycheck, we don’t like cancer, we don’t like hard marriages, we don’t like discomfort, so instead we start grasping at the straws of manifesting. 

If you really want as good of a life as you can have, including your marriage, here is the real path to your best shot at it:

Intentionality + Effort + Prayer + Trust

Be intentional with life and your marriage. Want a great marriage? Do what people who have great marriages do. They go on date nights, they have deep and authentic communication, they deal with their problems, they enjoy sex together, they have fun and a friendship. Do the things that will create a great marriage. Be intentional and put in some effort. Don’t just try to think them into happening. 

You also want to surrender in prayer. Manifestation is just an effort to try and be in complete control so your life can be easy. The problem is that life has probably already shown you repeatedly how little control you have. But that’s ok, control is overrated. What you need instead is to be faithful in prayer remembering that God is always in complete control. The One who knows all, sees all, and will always have the best plan, even when it makes no sense to you.

You see, what this all comes down to is knowing and trusting that when you’re following the Lord, things will always turn out how they should. He will put light on your path, and He will redeem any missed steps along the way. His plan will always be the best one, way better than anything you could ever manifest yourself. You just need to do the work, and sure, stay positive, but let Him be responsible for the results. 

Do you want to really unleash God in the changing of your marriage?
Try taking our 30 Day Praying for Your Husband Challenge or our 30 Day Praying for Your Wife Challenge!

Check them out here:

The Top 5 Best New Year Couple Goals

The Top 5 Best New Year Couple Goals

Did you know that a whopping 83% of the population does not have any goals? That means that majority of people are just living their lives and allowing whatever happens to just happen. Then there’s another 14% that has goals but aren’t serious enough about them to write them down.

Yikes!

This is not only a bad idea as a way of life, but it’s a really bad idea for your marriage. So, how about taking the 3% approach instead? What the 3% does is makes goals and writes them down. If you do that you will be in the top 3% of the population that is 30 times more likely to achieve your goals. Else, your marriage will just go wherever life takes it.

Let me encourage you as a couple to take some time, sit down together, and go over some of these top 5 goals and write them down.

Top 5 New Year Goals for Couples

This first one is rather simple, in fact, you probably already know people who have done this, or you may have done it yourself—pick a word. Think about one word that you want more of in your marriage this year. It can be peace, focus, growth, family, etc… We recommend you pray about this and see what word God may give you.

One simple word can act like a filter for your year. For instance, if it doesn’t help you grow, have peace or benefit family time, then it doesn’t get on your calendar. It’s the word you filter all your decisions through.

You also want to take time and reflect on the past. What worked about last year and what didn’t? Is there anything on the schedule that is stressful or that steals from your family or your peace? Was there anything that you loved and want more of? Discuss these things together.

When you’ve done your reflecting, it’s time to decide if you’re up for the challenge of fixing what is broken.There’s nothing like a new year that gives you a clean slate. Why bring old broken things into a new year. Now is the time to think about how you are as a couple. How is your communication? How well are you handling conflict? How about the household chores and business of running a family? If there’s an area that’s not working, decide to fix it.

Another great goal for the year is to make it a priority to connect daily. There are 4 prime times or sweet spots in your daily routine that are great for connecting. When you wake up, when you depart from one another, when you return together, and when you go to bed. Use those times for kisses, hugs, questions, and encouragements. Just get face to face and connect.

Lastly, and this is a big one—have fun! Don’t ever get so caught up in hitting those goals without making fun one of them. Friendship is foundational in marriage and a really solid indicator about the health of a marriage too. It’s been proven time and time again that coupes who have a solid friendship last the longest and are the most satisfied in their marriage.

As a new year approaches, always keep in mind that you may not be able to control what the new year brings, but you can always decide how you’re going to handle it.

If you want another great way to start a new year, how about joining a completely free 30 Day Praying for your Husband or for your Wife Challenge. Click below to sign up today!

Skip to main content }) })