Top 10 Secrets to a Happy Marriage
Relationship advice for newlyweds. There are many couples in happy marriages and you can bet they’re practicing these Top 10 Secrets.
1. Have Fun
2. Give More
3. Love Languages
4. Put the Other First
5. Brag About Your Spouse
6. Keep the Romance
7. Talk About It
8. Fight Naked
9. Forgive Easily
10. Keep Your Promise
Secret # 1
Have fun together.
Play a lot and laugh at each other’s jokes. Have fun together camping in your living room or playing silly games. Go ice skating or sledding or whatever you used to do as kid but this time bring your spouse!
“We are each other’s best friend.”
- Sarah Michelle Gellar
(married to Friddie Prinze Jr.)
Secret #2
Give more than you take.
It is better to give than to receive. Be thoughtful and practice random acts of kindness. Surprise your partner every once in a while, even if it’s only dinner.
“You can’t sit back. My husband and I have made the choice that our marriage is the most important thing to us. We respect what we have and understand how we need to feed it.”
- Faith Hill
(married to Tim McGraw)
Secret #3
Speak their love language.
Learn your spouse’s love language and practice it. Dr. Gary Chapman has found 5 different love languages: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch.
“We cannot rely on our native tongue if our spouse does not understand it. If we want them to feel the love we are trying to communicate, we must express it in his or her primary love language.”
- Dr Gary Chapman (Author of The 5 Love Languages)
Secret #4
Put the other first.
Practice selflessness and support each other—always! Connect with your spouse once a day, once a week and once a year!
"Being in a long marriage is a little bit like that nice cup of coffee every morning – I might have it every day, but I still enjoy it." -Stephen Gaines
Secret # 5
Brag about your spouse.
Lift them up in front of your friends. Start bragging about your husband or wife. Boast about your marriage. Profess your love for your husband or wife, publicly.
“I love being married to my wife—she's the best thing that ever happened to me.”
- Matt Damon (married to Luciana Barroso)
Secret # 6
Keep the romance alive
Go on dates. Light candles. Hug and kiss every day. Once in a while, make your bedroom like a fancy hotel with candles, lots of pillows, and flowers.
“We keep a lot of candles in our bedroom. I want us to always stay honeymooners.”
- Clint Black (married to Lisa Hartman Black)
Secret # 7
Talk about it
Communicate your thoughts and feelings. Connect with your spouse side to side, face to face and nose to nose.
“We talk a lot. Sometimes people hear us talking and think we over-talk situations but communication is everything.”
- Will Smith (married to Jada Pinkett Smith)
Secret #8
Fight Naked
If you fight naked, then you won’t be mad at each other for very long. Separate to cool off. Change your expectations. Move toward your spouse with tenderness.
“A great marriage is not when the perfect couple’ comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.”
- Dave Meurer (Author of Daze of Our Wives)
Secret # 9
Forgive Easily
Be quick to say you‘re sorry and don’t harbour grudges. Think the best of each other.
“When you see a married couple waking down the street, the one that’s a few steps ahead is the one that’s mad.”
- Helen Rowland (American journalist and humorist)
Secret #10
Keep your promise.
Marriage is a commitment. Always remember the reasons you wanted to spend the rest of your life with your spouse.
“So it’s not gonna be easy. Its gonna be really hard. We’re gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, every day. You and me ... every day.”
- Nicholas Sparks (Author of The Notebook)
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