Powerful Ways to Enrich Your Marriage and Deepen Your Connection
By John Thurman, M.Div., M.A., LPCC
Love each other with genuine affection
and take delight in honoring each other.
Romans 12:10 NLT
I hope the title Powerful Ways to Enrich Your Marriage and Deepen Your Connection is correct.
Marriage and serious relationships are some of the most challenging endeavors any two humans can engage in. When a couple begins their journey, they are fueled with hopes, lust, love, and dreams, but within the first year, those hopes can sometimes peter into despair and isolation and those dreams into nightmares. Here are five hot tips that can keep you moving forward.
Let’s jump right in and look at powerful ways to enrich and deepen your marriage and connection.
Tip One – Watch Out for Anger
Anger, hurt, frustration, and disappointment can stifle a relationship. Here are three things a couple can do to lower rage and frustration.
1. Don’t let your negative feelings go unchecked. Ignoring or bottling things up causes anger and resentment to grow with interest. Instead, express your hurt, fear, or frustration as soon as you recognize it.
2. If you decide to tell your spouse about an offense or error, be sure to share your perspective in the language style of your partner. For example, if they are brief in their communication style (a condenser), try to be succinct and keep it short.
3. Don’t give ultimatums during emotionally charged talks. This is not the time or place even when one needs to be given. More likely, it reflects a control issue or a power struggle. Rarely does an ultimatum given in a heated moment lead to a positive outcome.
Here is a link to a great article from Focus on the Family, Dealing with Anger in Your Marriage.
Tip Two – Get Closer to Your Partner
When was the last time the two of your slow danced together? Slow dancing requires someone to lead and someone to follow. It requires two people attempting to coordinate their movements toward a graceful and intimate outcome.
Here are some ways you can move closer to your partner.
1. Forgive them for something you’ve held on to.
2. Give up one habit that drives your partner bonkers.
3 Be generous and grateful.
4. Have fun together.
Tip Three – Seven Tips to enrich your partnership.
One of the key ingredients for strengthening your marriage is to make sure you are consistently turning towards each other.
1. See each other as allies, not enemies.
2. Appreciate each other’s power without being threatened by it.
3. Value and nurture one another.
4. Stop seeing each other as stereotypes.
5. Celebrate the differences and enjoy the commonalities.
6. Realize everybody had wounds.
7. Be there for each other.
Tip Four – Integrate Fun Special Days into Your Routine
Play days are not only important for kids, but they are essential for couples. Here are some fun ideas and links to help you have more fun, special days.
1. Set aside special days when you and your spouse can devote 100% of yourself to each other.
2. If possible, rent a Honeymoon Suite at a local hotel for anniversaries, birthdays, and Valentine’s.
3. Take a day off from work and enjoy each other.
4. Collect greeting cards, postcards, or even sticky notes and flood your spouse with little one-line encouragement or affection.
5. Bake or buy heart-shaped cookies. Flowers and/or chocolates are also tried and true winners.
Check out this article for more great ideas! 58 Uniquely Fun and Creative Date Ideas For Couples
Tip Five – FOR GUYS – If your marriage seems dull, what’s stopping you from trying something new? Maybe you’re stuck in your routine or overfocused on other aspects of your life. Maybe you’re too predictable or just going through the motions. Shock your wife! Consider who she is, and be unusually creative and unpredictable in pursuing a relationship and refreshing your romance with her.
Here is a link to 5 Things Men Can Do to Strengthen Their Relationship.
I hope you discovered some helpful tips and truths in Powerful Ways to Enrich Your Marriage and Deepen Your Connection.
Action Plan
You are responsible for your part of your marriage! Here are some more resources you can use to make it better.
Sign up for my newsletter. The quickest way is to text 21tips to 33777. You’ll immediately receive my free PDF “21 Tips to Improve Your Marriage.”
Check out the links provided in this article.
If you need to talk to someone, find a trusted friend, a ministry leader, a pastor, a marriage mentor, or someone like me—a therapist and work-life coach.
John is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Work-Life Consultant with over forty-eight years of experience helping couples and individuals. He has also been married to his first wife for 50 years. So if you need help getting your relationship back on track and want to know more, schedule a free telephonic consultation with him today at 505-343-2011 or email him at john@johnthurman.info.
© 2023 John Thurman
