Keeping Your Marriage Alive and Well

by Dan Langerock

After the first few weeks of being married, life tends to settle down into the routines of work and other activities you and your spouse are involved in. Here are a few ideas to help keep your marriage alive and well as you progress in your relationship.
· Plan activities you can do together as well as individually. Make a point of setting aside time when you can be together in spite of the busyness of your life. Otherwise, it may happen too infrequently, and begin to deteriorate your relationship as a couple.
· Keep the surprise factor in your marriage: a dozen roses for no certain occasion, a date night together on the spur of the moment or a drive along the beach on a moonlit night.
· Have a set time you can be together as a couple with the Lord to worship and study together. Take the time to share ideas and listen to each other’s point of view about the topic of your study. Perhaps play a tape of a favorite ministry and discuss the content when it is finished.
· Look for ways you can please each other: help with the dishes when the other one is tired, put your arms around your mate and ask how they are doing, writing love notes or poems to each other, and a host of other ideas you can imagine.
· Be sincere with your compliments. When your spouse does something use a compliment to show your appreciation. If they are involved in public speaking or whatever support them in whatever way you can to uplift them.
· Be interested in what they are interested o and learn as much as you can about it so you can be knowledgeable and show you care. For instance, when my wife used to crochet, I would ask her a question about a certain type of stitch she was using
· Just because you are married doesn’t mean there will be less romance. In fact, now there should be more. If you keep the romance alive in your relationship, you will grow closer and more in love with each other.
Don’t let your relationship dwindle away into drudgery and boredom with each other. Use the wisdom and love of God to keep it fresh and alive as a testimony to what God is doing in your lives. Remember, your marriage and how you conduct it are part of your witness. Let your marriage make an impact for God with the love you have for each other.