Happy New Year! Yep, it’s that time of year when we all look ahead and make promises to ourselves. The book is blank, and we have 365 days to fill in the content of our life story. We plan to exercise more, eat more sensibly, volunteer more hours… These are all good things. While not all resolutions are achieved, we do know the things in life we pay attention to get more results than the things we take for granted.
So, what about our marriages? What would it look like, if you determined right now to make this the best year of marriage yet? Why not sit down with your spouse and look forward
to the coming year and establish some goals toward that end? It doesn’t mean you’ll have a bad year if you don’t do this, but the odds are without some effort it won’t be the greatest year ever. The mere act of sitting together and having this discussion will get you started on a great course. What would you like to focus on in your relationship in the coming year? How about your spouse? From each of your perspectives, where would you like to be one year from now and how could you go about getting there?
Tangible examples that you can draw from:
- Do you have a regular date night established? If not, set one. If so, is it often enough for the both of you?
- Plan a get away weekend for just the two of you. Yes, it takes effort and planning, but commit to it now, and you’ll find a way to achieve it.
- Find a new activity that the two of you can explore and enjoy together
- If you have kids, commit to lifting up and supporting your spouse in front of the children
- If you’ve not already done so, establish rules of engagementto proactively manage conflict
- Set aside some specific time each week for one on one conversation
- Discover one new thing about your spouse (an interest, a desire, a personal goal) that you can support them in
This is not an exhaustive list by any means. But imagine how your relationship could be improved if the two of you were to commit to goals such as these!
This is wishing you and your marriage all the best in the coming new year! May 2012 be the best year yet!!!