Discover 7 Life-Changing Principles for a Happy Marriage!

When you're caught up in the excitement of your wedding, it can be hard to imagine that you and your spouse might not live happily ever after. But sharing your life with another person can be a challenge, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience with relationships. Marriages take work, commitment, and love, but they also need respect to be truly happy and successful.

Creating and maintaining intimacy is fundamental to effective love. Intimacy involves being honest, sharing, admiring, and connecting with your spouse. 

Intimate experiences, whether sexual or nonsexual, bring us a sense of closeness, familiarity, affection, and perhaps even those butterflies you once had for each other when your relationship started, and all you could do all day was think about each other!  

A marriage based on love and respect doesn't just happen. Both spouses have to do their part. Below are some important keys to work on each day to make your marriage successful.

The Significance of Prioritizing God in Marriage: Prioritizing God in marriage is critical because it fosters a profound spiritual connection between spouses and allows them to seek God's wisdom and guidance, resulting in a partnership grounded in love, unity, and divine direction. Putting God first in marriage entails purposefully encouraging spiritual growth as a couple. Praying together, attending religious services, and studying the Scriptures are all methods to strengthen spiritual ties. Couples become closer to God and each other by supporting each other's spiritual journeys. When we let God into the heart of our marriages, He showers us with His knowledge, grace, and limitless love. By putting God first, we build a strong and lasting foundation for our marriages, ensuring they thrive and endure through the tests of time.

Practicing Forgiveness: Every marriage has its ups and downs. Your spouse may hurt your feelings or do something that disturbs you, causing you to be angry, even furious. But it's critical to confront your emotions, let them go, and move on. Don't bring up the past. Accepting God's forgiveness helps spouses to show the same grace to one another. Couples promote healing and regeneration by forgiving and expressing grace.

Communicate clearly and often: Communicating with your spouse is one of the most effective strategies to maintain your marriage healthy and prosperous. Be honest about your feelings, but express in a polite and courteous manner. Being a good listener and taking the time to understand what your spouse wants and needs from you are both essential components of effective communication. Keep the channels of communication open by chatting frequently, and not just about bills and kids. Share your views and emotions.

Tell your spouse that you're thankful for having them in your life: Appreciate each other, your relationship, your family, and your shared lives. Express your appreciation when your partner cooks supper, helps the kids with their homework, or goes grocery shopping. It may be good to spend a few minutes each evening telling each other about something you loved that day.

Commitment: Marriage is about committing to one person for the rest of your life. There are millions of people in the world, but the moment you say ''I DO!", you have entered into a life contract with your spouse.

You need to stay committed to him/her. This is highly essential. Commitment is the foundation upon which mutual trust and respect are built.

Stay faithful: Cheating on your spouse is adultery, and there is no encouragement or advice in the Bible to commit adultery. "So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife." God sees infidelity as a breach of the marriage vow. Adultery is not a recent vice. However, the prevalence of marital infidelity appears to be increasing in our day and age as a result of the internet and social media. Couples that are determined to establish a happy marriage free of infidelity can do so. This would not be easy, but with prayer and collaboration, they can do it. They must understand that temptation has no end. Thus, as long as they are married, they must be wary of any temptation to cheat. Marital fidelity is a conscious decision that can only be achieved via intentional effort.

Understand that it's OK to disagree: Life with a spouse is all about communicating thoughts and possibilities. This is how we grow alongside one another. If we agreed on everything all the time, the marriage would get dull quickly You won't agree on everything, but it's crucial to be fair and respectful while disagreeing. Listen to your spouse's point of view. Try not to get angry or upset. If necessary, take a break and calm down before returning to the discussion again.

The finest judgments are made when everyone involved speaks openly and honestly. When everyone feels understood and respected. Only then can you have constructive discussions about how to move forward. The relationship never benefits from one person attempting to save face or hide their feelings in order to satisfy the other.

This indicates a relationship based on fear and scarcity rather than freedom and love. My wife and I have numerous disagreements, the majority of them are minor in nature. However, major events do occur on occasion. Neither of us is wrong; we simply approach things in different ways. It is one of the most wonderful aspects of our relationship. It's true what they say: if you're both the same, one of you is redundant. 

However, we established a long-standing rule in our marriage that no major changes or choices should be made unless both of us are completely on board. If we aren't completely satisfied, we wait, talk about it, give it some time, and then come back. This has greatly benefited our marriage. I'd be more concerned if you and your husband never disagreed.

The list is endless.

Feel free to add in the comment section and more ingredients that you feel will help us have a successful and happy married life.