How To Have A Healthy Marriage? Having a healthy marriage is everyone’s dream although very few people end up living it as a reality. Although challenging, experiencing a happy marriage is not impossible. By embracing the healthy marriage initiative and following the healthy marriage tips, you’ll easily keep yourself far from an unhealthy marriage (unhappy marriage). Just know the healthy marriage boundaries and you are good to go. “Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate.” – Barnett R. Brickner
Living a successful marriage these days is even more than ever difficult. This explains why the world is facing a high rate of divorce. This high rate of divorce in question is quite pertinent among young couples. From the very beginning till date, marriage has never been a child’s play. Only mature minds can survive in marriage. A solid reason why we are calling for preparation before marital engagements. And with the best tips for a healthy marriage that we’ll be presenting, you’ll find the preparatory process simple. Just like good nutrition and regular exercise can help in maintaining a healthy body, there are many things that married people can do to have a healthy marriage.
How To Have A Healthy Marriage (Happy Marriage)
Tips For A Healthy Marriage
1. Understand The Meaning Of Love And Commitment
In simple terms, love revolves around commitment to another person. Unlike what is portrayed on television, romance novels, and the big screen, love is far more than a fleeting emotion. The truth is that feelings come and go whereas a genuine decision to be committed lasts forever – and this is what actually defines healthy marriages. We can as well say with all confidence that marriage is a decision to be committed through the ups and downs, the good and the bad. So long as things are unfolding well, commitment is easy. However, genuine love is demonstrated through total commitment even when things are not unfolding as planned.
2. Spend Quantitative And Qualitative Time With Each Other
Married partners need quantitative and qualitative time together in order to grow strong. This is a call to plan regularly scheduled date nights and weekend activities together. No matter how busy you are, it is very important to spend time with your partner. By spending time with your partner, you will rapidly figure out your differences and ways on how to settle or negotiate the problems that they may cause. A healthy marriage needs both quantitative and qualitative time spend together. Both go together and should be taken serious. Note that relationships don’t work without time investment. If you are serious about succeeding in your relationship, you’ll need to go for intentional and quality time together. And as we already know, quality time rarely happens when quantity time is absent. Make sure that the relationship with your spouse is the most intimate and deep relationship that you have.
3. Practice Sexual Faithfulness
Practicing sexual faithfulness is one of the pillars of a successful marriage. It is important to understand here that sexual faithfulness in marriage includes just more than our bodies. That is, it also includes our eyes, mind, heart, and soul. By devoting our minds to sexual fantasies about another person, we sacrifice sexual faithfulness to our spouse. Also, when we offer moments of emotional intimacies to another person, we sacrifice sexual faithfulness to our spouse. It is in this light that we call on you to guard your sexuality on a daily basis as you devout it to your spouse. Sexual faithfulness requires awareness of the consequences and self-discipline. In the light of Christ, refuse to put anything in-front of your eyes, body, or heart that will lead to unfaithfulness.
4. Practice Patience And Forgiveness
It is without doubt that no one is perfect. And because no one is perfect, patience and forgiveness will always be required in marriages. Note that this is just one of the best tips for a healthy marriage worth your attention. Successful marriage partners are those who have learned to show unending patience and forgiveness to their partner. In humility, they accept their own faults and do not expect perfection from their spouse. They do not bring up past errors in an attempt to hold their partner hostage. In addition, they do not seek to make amends or get revenge when mistakes occur. Refuse to hold past mistakes against your partner. Willingly forgive them and free your relationship.
5. Cultivate Humility
Without doubt, we all have weaknesses and relationships are quite quick in revealing them. One of the most important tips for a healthy marriage is the ability to admit that you are not perfect, that your are likely to make mistakes, and that you need forgiveness. It is also important to understand that holding an attitude of superiority over your partner is likely to bring about resentment as well as preventing the growth of the relationship.
6. Put Value On Regular Communication
Regular Communication is a solid pillar to achieving a healthy marriage. In fact, there is no successful marriage without regular communication. Health marriage partners communicate as much as possible. Indeed, they certainly discuss grocery lists, kid’s schedules, and utility bills. However, they don’t stop here. Healthy marriage partners also communicate fears, dreams, hopes, expectations, desires, wishes, and anxieties. In as much as they discuss the changes that are taking place in the kid’s life, they also discuss those in their lives. An honest communication is just the foundation of many things among which we have: commitment, trust, patience, love, and forgiveness.
7. Understand The Importance Of Honesty And Trust
Honesty and trust stands as the foundation for every happy and successful marriage. Unlike the other essentials for a healthy or happy marriage, trust takes time. It is possible to become selfless, committed, or patient in a moment, but trust on its part always takes time to be cultivated. The truth is that trust is only build after weeks, months, and years of being who you say you are and doing what you say you will do. Although trust takes time, once build, it becomes a powerful pillar for a healthy marriage. With this in mind, it is important to start building it as from today. If you need to rebuild trust in your relationship, you’ll definitely need to work extra hard.
8. Stand Against Selflessness
More marriages are broken up by selflessness than any other reason. You’ll hardly find this on any survey but it is just the simplest truth. Surveys turn to blame broken marriages on finances, infidelity, lack of commitment, or incompatibility, but the root cause of these reasons is selflessness. Unarguably, a selfish person is committed only to himself or herself. Such a person turns to display little patience and never learns how to be a good spouse. This point is a call for you to give your hopes, dreams, and life to your partner and begin to live life together. Value your marriage by investing your time, effort, resources, and commitment to make it work.
9. Learn To Negotiate Conflict
Conflict is a normal part of every relationship. In as much as a conflict can reinforce the link between both partners, it can as well distance them the more. Whenever a conflict is on ground, both partners should negotiate their differences to meet an agreement. By so doing, they’ll block way for the enlargement of the conflict. Working out problems in a relationship begins with understanding your differences and having the genuine will to restore peace and understanding.
10. Always Respect Each Other
Respect is very important in achieving a healthy and successful relationships. Each time that a couple fails to show respect to each other, they are likely to slip into negative habits. Quantitative and qualitative researches have revealed that nothing can damage a relationship quicker than criticisms and put-downs. Always treat your partner the way you’ll like to be treated. By so doing, you are strengthening the bond that exist between you and your spouse. Paying your spouse a compliment is a quick way to show your respect and value to their person. Each time that you think of complaining to someone about your spouse, ask yourself how you would feel if they did that to you.
11. Explore Common Interests
When couples share similar interest, they thrive. Although this does not mean that each partner will enjoy every activity, it opens up the opportunity for greater sharing and compromise. Although doing things separately isn’t bad, things of common interest are important to healthy marriages. A common interest could just be anything from cooking or eating together to going for walks or playing cards. Here, the goal is to find something out of your family that you both enjoy doing.
12. Create A Spiritual Connection
Research has revealed that many couples grow closer when they share some form of spiritual connection. This can be achieved through many ways. As example, it could be through an affiliation to a church or synagogue.
13. Look For The Best In Each Other
When you first met with your partner, you were attracted by some qualities in him/her. In fact, you saw just the best in them. Chances are high that today, you no longer see those qualities or you think that your partner has lose them. Don’t give up yet but carryout an objective look to figure out those things that make them special in your life.
14. Learn About Yourself First
Before learning and understanding your spouse, start by learning and understanding yourself. It is rather unfortunate that many people enter into marriages without knowing enough about themselves. If you have difficulties understanding yourself, chances are high that you won’t be able to understand your spouse. That’s why it is important to know yourself first.
Bible Verses About A Healthy Marriage
What The Bible Says About A Healthy Marriage
Group 1
Genesis 2:24 – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.“
Hebrews 13:4 – “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.“
Colossians 3:18 – “Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.“
Colossians 3:19 – “Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.”
Ephesians 5:25-29 – “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,“
1 Peter 3:1-6 – “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, …“
Group 2
1 Corinthians 7:10-11 – “To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.”
Ephesians 5:22-23 – “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”
Genesis 3:16 – To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
Exodus 20:14 – “You shall not commit adultery.”
Luke 16:18 – “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.“
1 Corinthians 7:32-34 – “I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.”
Group 3
Proverbs 31:10-31 – “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar. …“
Proverbs 5:15-19 – “Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.”
Ephesians 5:21 – “Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.“
1 Corinthians 7:3 – “The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 – “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; …“
Group 4
Genesis 2:18 – Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Romans 2:6-8 – “He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”
Ephesians 5:28-32 – “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”
Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.“
Ephesians 4:29 – “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.“
Ephesians 5:33 – “However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.“
2 Thessalonians 2:14-15 – “To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.”
Group 5
1 Corinthians 11:1-2 – “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.”
John 20:19-23 – “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”“
Romans 12:2 – “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Ephesians 5:1-33 – “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. …”
Group 6
Acts 2:38-39 – And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
Ephesians 5:31-32 – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.“
Philippians 4:8 – “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.“
Malachi 2:16 – “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,“
Ephesians 5:25 – “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,“
Luke 1:37 – “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
John 13:34-35 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Genesis 1:27 – “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Group 7
Matthew 5:32 – “But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Mark 10:2-12 – “And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ …“
1 Peter 5:7 – “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.“
1 Corinthians 13:1-6 – “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; …“
Luke 6:37 – “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;“
Group 8
Philippians 2:12-13 – “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.“
Genesis 9:1 – And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”
Ephesians 4:26 – “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,”
Ephesians 4:15 – “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,“
Romans 1:26-29 – “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,“
2 Corinthians 11:2 – “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.”
Group 9
Matthew 7:13-14 – “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Matthew 19:4-5 – “He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?“
Psalm 91:15 – “When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.”
Ecclesiastes 2:24 – “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,”
Proverbs 24:1-34 – “Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble. By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, …“
Psalm 1:1 – “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;“
Group 10
1 Corinthians 13:7 – “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.“
Genesis 1:1-13 – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. …“
Acts 2:38 – “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.“
1 Corinthians 5:7 – “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
Hebrews 13:6 – So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
Psalm 117:1-2 – “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!“
1 Corinthians 13:4-5 – “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;“
Group 11
1 Corinthians 13:4 – “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant”
1 Thessalonians 4:16 – “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.“
John 3:18 – “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
1 Corinthians 13:2 – “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.“
Psalm 50:5 – “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
Matthew 1:1 – “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
Matthew 1:2 – “Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,“
John 3:16-17 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Group 12
Hebrews 10:5-6 – “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.“
Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.“
Galatians 2:6 – “And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me.”
Proverbs 2:1-22 – “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. …“
Proverbs 5:18 – “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,”
Also Read
- Bible Verses About Marriage
- What Does The Bible Say About Marriage
- What Does The Bible Say About Windows
- Bible Verses About Love
