Valentine’s Day is a magnificent day to expect love. Especially if you’ve had marriage problems recently, avoid the trap of expecting chocolates or dinner or jewelry or something romantic. Your chances of expecting the right thing are tiny. Your chances of missing out on love when you expect some particular sign of it are great. The best gift you can give your husband on...
What an honor it is to walk into someone’s life at just the right moment. I had a chance recently to talk about assuming love, expecting love, and looking for the third alternative with a woman ready to toss in the towel on her marriage. Recent life events had created a lot of tension between her and her husband of twenty-plus years. Like me when I was 34 years old and frantic, she’d...
How to feel more loved every single day: 1 – Assume love. When your spouse’s or life partner’s behavior upsets you, stop, assume for the moment he or she is still the same wonderful person and still loves you very much. Now try to explain how he or she might have done this if this is true. You’ll stop your knee-jerk reactions long enough to see the situation a lot more...
If you, your spouse, and your kids are the only ones who care if your marriage is a happy one, count your blessings. Over a third (35%) of women in a September 2007 Ladies Home Journal survey said their vote for president in 2008 would be influenced at least somewhat by how happy they thought the candidate’s marriage was. Coming in second in perceived marital happiness, right behind John...
Lots of folks say a good marriage requires a lot of hard work. I disagree. The hard work comes in when we struggle to provide a spouse with more love by stretching our abilitiies at loving and going beyond what we feel like giving. I applaud the effort, and it’s saved lots of marriages, but I think there’s an easier route. Those newly in love also stretch to do more, learn new ways to...
