Expressing Your Love – vol. 3

Throughout an engagement, couples will continue to get advice on how to plan their wedding – who to invite, how much to spend, where to have the wedding, etc – but I think that some of the best advice comes from couples who have been married a long time. They have the experience to share with newlyweds. Married couples have had the joys and the sorrows and understand the core of what keeps a couple together. The Art of a Good Marriage II is a favorite reading of mine, as it gives a roadmap for couples. Enjoy!

Across the years I’ll walk with you, in deep green forest, on shores of sand, and when our time on earth is through, in heaven too, you will have my hand.

Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. In the art of marriage, the little things are the big things:

It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say, I love you, once each day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.

It is at no time taking for granted. The courtship should not end with the honeymoon, but continue through all the years. It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is the speaking of words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is not looking for perfection in each other.

It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding, and a sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is finding room for the things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is not marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

–The Art of a Good Marriage II
by Wilferd Arlan Peterson