12 Years of Marriage!

My husband and I recently celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. God has truly blessed me with an amazing partner in this life. We've had our share of hardships and sadness but thankfully have had more times of joy. Here are twelve tips that have helped us have a happy marriage.

12 Tips for a Successful Marriage

1. Put God first. When God is placed at the center of your relationship, you tend to look at each other differently.

2. Eat breakfast and dinner together when possible. Lunch too if you can! I'm saddened by how many families don't eat any meals together. 

3. Take time to talk, everyday! Let's be honest, sometimes we really only have about 5 minutes to talk alone. At least it's something. Why only five minutes some days? Well, we have three young children and they keep us very busy and are always around us. Sometimes when we're putting them to bed one of us will fall asleep and the other one well go to bed since we get a visitor every night. I haven't slept through the night in two years.

4. Be intimate. Once children enter the picture, true exhaustion hits like you've never seen! It's still important to take time to be together. 

5. Pray for one another. Prayer is so powerful and it's so important to pray for your spouse, daily. Find out what's on their heart and pray for them.

6. Help each other out. We all have "chores" we each typically do to run a household. Occasionally surprise your spouse and do theirs or jump in and help. I cannot tell you how often and appreciative I am of my husband helping me get caught up on folding and putting away a basket or two of towels, for example. 

7. Support each other's hobbies. Most likely you will each have a hobby that you are interested in. Allow your spouse time for their hobby. We are not able to spend tons of time with our hobbies but we get to enjoy them when we can.

8. Learn to speak their love language. Gary Chapman's book, The Five Love Languages, will give you a clue of what your spouse's love language is if you don't already know it. Once you figure it out, speak it to them!

9. Cry together. Sometimes life is just unfair! When you are married there is no reason you need to suffer alone. Go to your spouse, cry with each other. Everybody goes through tough times as well as happy times.

10. Laugh together. Hopefully you will have far more times of laughing together than crying. Tell each other jokes, remind each other of funny events you've gone through, watch a funny comedian. 

11. Cook together. There is something fun about cooking with someone. This past year we started subscribing to Blue Apron and Green Chef. We've made some wonderful meals and learned from doing this. 

12. Go on dates. Most of our dates are at home after the kids are in bed. We'll watch a movie we didn't make it to the theater to see. Eat dessert without the kids. Or just talk and catch up. Once our baby is a little older we'll go on dates away from the house again.

Marriage can be hard. But it can also be a lot of fun! May you and your spouse enjoy a lifetime together.