This week my husband and I celebrated our 35^th wedding anniversary. While no marriage is perfect, there are a few things that can strengthen the relationship between husband and wife. Here’s my short list of ways to increase the happiness in your marriage and keep the home fires burning.

Positive Practices

• Communicate in a loving tone
• Pray together every day
• Forgive, forgive, forgive – continually
• Maintain hope
• Listen well
• See the best in your spouse
• Smile, laugh, go on dates together
• Build on your common interests and hobbies
• Appreciate the differences
• Overlook the small stuff
• Greet your spouse with joy (take a lesson from your dog on this one)
• Reflect on what brought you together in the first place
• Agree to disagree at times
• Be a content and joyful person
• Find your identity in Christ, not your spouse

Some Don’ts:

• Don’t use the words “always” or “never”
• Don’t demand your own way or think you know it all
• Don’t nab and nit-pick at each other
• Don’t hold on to past offenses or grudges
• Don’t let technology isolate you and diminish your communication
• Don’t depend on your spouse for your own personal happiness

The apostle Paul described love this way, “⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (I Corinthians 13)

I don’t know about you, but I fall short of that description of love in many ways. The good news is, this description of love gives us a picture of God’s love toward us. How wonderful to know that God genuinely loves us and that we can ask Him to pour His love through us. May His love be very real in your life today.