Marriage Through The Alphabet – D
Determination is important in building and maintaining a REAL marriage. Determination gives you the motivation or energy to do what you need to do in your marriage even when you do not feel like it. Marriage is great overall and yet some days are difficult. Some days we do not want to be nice to our spouse, or kids, or co-workers, or anyone else. Determination can help you be nice anyway. Determination helps you get through tough days, weeks, months, or even years. Determination is not pretty at the moment but it leads to beauty through time.
Stay determined. It will help your marriage, encourage others, and leave a good legacy for your children, grandchildren, and friends.
Forgiveness and Life
“Life is an adventure in forgiveness.” Norman Cousins
Forgiveness is important to your married life adventure. One of the things that will make this adventure more enjoyable for both of you is the ability to offer and receive forgiveness. For more on forgiveness read this blog post.
Forgive and enjoy the adventure of your REAL marriage.
Marriage Through The Alphabet – C
The “C” is Celebrate. Most of us like to celebrate when there is something to celebrate. If we look for a reason we can find one most days to celebrate something and make it part of our marriage or family. Celebrations are happy and become good memories. These good memories can sustain us when things are not so good. Celebrate as often as you can whether it is a small celebration or a great big celebration. Here is a quick list of ideas to get you started.
- Your spouse’s (and other family members) birthdays – each month
- Your anniversary each month
- Holidays
- Promotions
- The weekend
- A new week
- New jobs
- End/beginning of school
- Accomplishments in extra curricular activities (bowling league, children’s activities, etc)
- Reaching goals
- Change of seasons
You get the idea. Celebrate often. If you follow this advice you will have at least one celebration each month. Start celebrating more and see what happens.
REAL Faithfulness Tip #29
Wear your wedding ring. Look at it frequently and use it as a reminder to be faithful to your marriage.
Remaining faithful is essential to your REAL Marriage.
Marriage Through the Alphabet – B
The word for this entry is Blessing. This is meant to be a positive word so for all of you who have been “blessed out” I am talking about something different. In today’s entry the idea of blessing has to do with things we say and things we do.
Give a blessing to your spouse, loved ones, and even your friends. If you are really bold, give a blessing to the people you meet and do not know. To give a blessing is to wish the best for them. If you want to go all out on blessing someone I recommend you read the book, The Blessing, by Gary Smalley & John Trent. In this book the authors list five elements to a blessing:
- Meaningful touch
- Spoken words
- Expressing high value
- Picturing a special future
- An active commitment
To be a blessing takes number five from above – an active commitment. It is a commitment of support, loyalty, and love. To be a blessing takes action. Most people do such things once in a while as a normal part of life. Today make a decision to BE a blessing everyday as part of who you are and decide to give a blessing every time you have an opportunity. I can only imagine the difference in our lives, our country, and our world if we lived as a blessing and overcame the curses.
Marriage Through the Alphabet – A
This is the start of a series of marriage tips and information organized by the alphabet. Some of these ideas are easy and some take more work yet I believe they are possible for most people. Today is “A” and we will go through the alphabet. Feel free to send me your favorite (clean) marriage words and I may use it as one of the posts.
Adaptable. This is my first “A” word. All marriages and relationships work better when they are adaptable. Adaptable in this case is a way of working together. More gets done around the house when you split chores. One of my main jobs in our house is to be the taxi for the boys. However, when they have to be in different places at the same time I am not able to do this and my wife takes one boy to one event while I take the other. Typically, I am the one to mow the lawn and she handles flower beds. There are times though when she mows the lawn and times when I help out with flower beds (under careful instruction).
Sometimes our plans do not go the way we want them to and we have to adapt. We do this together so that we can work together for the benefit of our marriage and our family. We do not always get it right yet we keep working on it and overall we have a satisfying marriage and a healthy, mostly happy, family. You can do the same. Develop the mindset and habit of being adaptable and reap the benefits for your marriage, family, and relationships.
REAL Love Note Tip #154 & REAL Date Tip #103
Happy April Fool’s Day everyone. Today’s ideas are easy and a bit corny and yet effective.
For your REAL Love Note, make a note in your special someone’s favorite color. The outside says, “Happy April Fool’s Day!” The inside message is, “I am a fool for you!” Or it could be, “I am still a fool for you!”
The REAL Date Tip is to do something you think foolish (just keep it moral, legal, and ethical). Try curling (yes, the sport on ice) or play Chutes & Ladders or your favorite children’s game. If the weather is nice try playing hopscotch together. You get the idea.
If this is a day for fools and foolishness you might as well be fools together doing foolishness in love together. REAL Love Notes and REAL Dates are investments in your love bank and your marriage.
Hugs and boomerangs
“A hug is like a boomerang – you get it back right away.” Bill Keane
Love Math
“In love, one and one are one.” Jean Paul Sartre
Play “Your Song”
When you think of your relationship or marriage, which song would you say is, “our song?” Most couples have one. If you don’t have one you might want to think about adopting one. Music is powerful. There is great meaning behind “our song” for couples. So, tonight, play your song for your spouse. You can make it serious by using that good recording you have whether it is on vinyl, 8 track, cassette, CD, or digital format and throwing in good food and good lighting. You can also make it lighthearted and fun. Today is National Kazoo Day. Pick up a kazoo and play your song for your spouse. It may be just the fun you need on a January evening.
REAL action leads to a REAL marriage.
