What makes a good marriage? What’s one healthy marriage photo you imagine when you think of a happy marriage? Resilience comes to my mind. We’ve all heard the advice to “never let the sun go down on your anger,” In other words don’t go to bed mad and wake up mad.
This being said, before and after the marriage ceremony, I believe all good marriages have conflict. Being able to solve an issue and put it to rest is one of the things that I believe makes for a good marriage. Picking-up from there, without holding grudges is a way to build-up and not break-down a marriage. Resilience, endurance, understanding, giving, compassion, and forgiveness. Those qualities and more contribute to a healthy, long marriage that will make it through many painful situations in life.
I love the quote on marriage by Ben Franklin, “Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards!” Sometimes we just need to learn to choose our battles wisely. For instance, if you like to pick up and arrange the throw pillows on your bed or on your couch and your spouse could care less, is it really worth arguing about if you have to rearrange and straighten them each time? On the other hand, if you are bothered that your spouse always seems to choose his friends over you, well, this might just be a good place to draw a line in the sand. What is marriage if not being able to have a friendship with another person where you want to hang-out with them more than anyone else?
Here’s the great news: no matter what obstacles you face in your relationship, with perseverance, determination, hope for the future, and especially love, you can overcome any forces that try to derail your marriage.
Stay-tuned for our Vital Living Marriage Webinar, coming-up soon.
