Keeping your marriage requires knowing, understanding and living the secrets for a happy and lasting marriage. Love may be an important part of marriage, but love alone will not help you go through all the troubles that are bound to happen in your married life. There are other essential aspects that must be applied and used to make marriage last.
€ Open communication is for candidly expressing each other's thoughts and feelings. You and your spouse should communicate well with one another. Communicate to tell one another of your needs; to settle issues and to discuss relationship matters. Honesty is one crucial ingredient of a happy and successful marriage. Put communication aside and you will continue to struggle in your marriage. If one spouse speaks, the other should listen and vice versa. Understand each other's points of view.
€ Careful consideration and understanding are also necessary. When your spouse speaks to you about his needs and desires, you need to understand what he says and always consider what he would feel and think for each action or deed you perform.
€ Sharing of household responsibilities may be mundane, but will do a lot in strengthening marriage. You need to help one another in performing responsibilities and tasks around the house such as cleaning cooking and looking after the kids. If one spouse feels that he or she is doing most of the tasks at home, it can give way to bitterness. In marriage, the husband and wife need to work together as a good team, sharing responsibilities to further strengthen the bond between them. Both spouses should also consider if the other is already being over-burdened with various tasks at home.
€ Finances are also a part of marriage that spouses should share and contribute to. Make sure that the financial situation of the household does not get in the way of a healthy marriage. As anything in marriage, finances must be discussed, especially if certain difficulties arise. You should both be aware of what is happening and going on financially. Work together in planning and in materializing a reasonable budget. You need to both take part in making decisions about money.
€ Willingness to make sacrifices is also another important aspect in making marriage last. Both spouses should be prepared to prioritize the happiness of the other from time to time. Keeping one's individuality in marriage is important for the personal growth of each partner, but this should not mean that you will simply just consider your own happiness at all times. Remember that you are now married to your spouse. Your lives has practically become one, so you must also think of what will make your partner happy, instead of just considering your own happiness. Do not think also that you should be the center of the relationship. You need to nurture one another and show your love even through little things such as cooking your partner's favorite dish.
€ Maintaining the affection and intimacy in marriage is also important. Not because you are already tied by the bond of marriage does not mean that it is needless to maintain that spark of love and passion between you. You need to be physically and intimately stay close to each other. Even the small affectionate gestures like holding hands or hugging will help a lot in preserving intimacy in marriage.