Improvement

When you're trying to become a better person, be wise to know what is within your power to change. Same goes for when you are trying to improve your spouse's character. Baby steps and encouragement are critical parts of change. Two steps forward and one step back is expected.

Remember just like the baby falls when trying to take it's first steps, we will too. We encourage the baby like it is the best thing in the world, because it is. When you're headed in the right direction, falls will happen, just keep trying.

chicbrownbride.com has cute quotes like this

Living and Loving Each Day

"A happy marriage is not based on the number of days, months or years you've been together. A happy marriage is about how much you love each other every day." - unknown
http://www.happywivesclub.com/a-happy-marriage-7/

We've been together 13 years, 5 months and 8 days, but who's counting. I won't try to pretend that each of those days were filled with love, but I can say that we ended each bad day happily. I can also say that most of those days together have been filled with love and sometimes so much love towards each other that the words "I love you" aren't enough.

A happy marriage is not based on the number of days, months, or years you’ve been together. A happy marriage is about how much you love each other everyday.” -Unknown - See more at: http://www.happywivesclub.com/a-happy-marriage-7/#sthash.Wbe8txBK.dpufA

“A happy marriage is not based on the number of days, months, or years you’ve been together. A happy marriage is about how much you love each other everyday.” -Unknown - See more at: http://www.happywivesclub.com/a-happy-marriage-7/#sthash.Wbe8txBK.dpuf

“A happy marriage is not based on the number of days, months, or years you’ve been together. A happy marriage is about how much you love each other everyday.” -Unknown - See more at: http://www.happywivesclub.com/a-happy-marriage-7/#sthash.Wbe8txBK.dpuf

“A happy marriage is not based on the number of days, months, or years you’ve been together. A happy marriage is about how much you love each other everyday.” -Unknown - See more at: http://www.happywivesclub.com/a-happy-marriage-7/#sthash.Wbe8txBK.dpuf

“A happy marriage is not based on the number of days, months, or years you’ve been together. A happy marriage is about how much you love each other everyday.” -Unknown - See more at: http://www.happywivesclub.com/a-happy-marriage-7/#sthash.Wbe8txBK.dpuf

In Person

If you have a problem to discuss about your relationship or your spouse, don't do it over the phone or internet! People tend to be far less considerate of others' feelings when they're separated by cyberspace, and in-person communication adds vital information channels (body language!) to the discussion.

Very Married

Seriously, "Be very married".  That's romantic.
I think it means: be intensely loyal and loving to your spouse.
Of course they have to be loyal and loving to you too :)
Time to "be very married".

Longtime Married Love

And if you suppose that the full-blown rapture of young romantic love is the sum total of the possibilities which spring from the fountains of life, you have not yet lived to see the devotion and the comfort of longtime married love - Boyd K Packard

I'd say, when young romantic love begins to fizzle out of your marriage, stick with your partner because the best is yet to be.

Marriage between Man and Woman

 "Fathers don't 'mother' and mothers don't 'father'." A married man and woman are needed to best nurture their children.

Marriage Efficiency

"No one has ever come up with a more efficient way to raise the next generation than a household of married parents with children." - Elder Perry Last Conference Talk
Elder Perry Died

May Marriages Flourish

"May marriages flourish and families prosper, and whether our lot is a fulness of these blessings in mortality or not, may the Lord’s grace bring happiness now and faith in sure promises to come."-Elder Christofferson

Marriage is more than love

"Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal—it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. … So love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God.”

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (1953), 42–43.

Young and Married Part Two

For those who say "but that's too young to get married!" I would just say this: between the years of 18 and 21 American young adults make enormous, important, and life changing decisions: driving cars, leaving home, starting careers, beginning university degrees, joining the armed forces, legally being allowed to drink alcohol and use tobacco (which we don't, by the way).

We rightly celebrate that most young adults are mature enough to make such important decisions at these ages, we encourage them to do so, and we tend to frown on people who choose to put off those important decisions for a decade or more. Then why do so many frown on the young couple that chooses to marry? If they are grown up enough to make all those other decisions, then they are grown up enough to marry if they choose to.

Image Credits: Car and Michigan

Why "save yourself" for marriage?

Several years ago, Leah was assigned to teach a group of 13-year old boys about the importance of chastity, and of avoiding pre-marital sex. One of them asked, why is it so important if you're just going to get married and have sex in a few years anyway?

Her answer: Right now there are about 3 billion women out there that you're not supposed to have sex with. After you get married, there will still be about 3 billion women out there (minus one) that you're not supposed to have sex with.

They got it.

Remaining pure before marriage is just plain good practice for remaining faithful during marriage.

A Good Marriage

A good marriage isn't one without problems, instead it's one where the problems get taken care of instead of festering.

Love Grams

Valentine's Day Ideas

Young and Married

So many couples are getting married in their 30s, if at all. We think you're missing out. When a couple gets married young, they have more of a chance to shape each other into a compatible pair. We married at 20 and 22 years old. Now, we look back and see how as we develop and change, we naturally change in ways that are compatible for both of us. In a very real way, we've grown to become each others' ideal partner. If we had just met now (over ten years later), there's no way we could have just chosen on our own to be such a duo. We would have been more set in our ways. It would have been harder to live as an intertwined pair.

Pray together

 

Photo Courtesy of: AProverbsWife.com

 3 Serious Benefits to Praying Together Everyday

1) You are speaking with and seeking council from the All-Knowing God who loves you

2) You can learn what each other is concerned about or thankful for

3) It's really hard to stay mad at each other when you're praying together

Service In Marriage

"He who serves in some things, is good for somethings. 

He who serves in no things, is good for nothing."

-Hugo E Martinez

Try out service more in your marriage. There's always plenty of work to share.

Tiny Thoughts

 "Marriage is a gift from God to us, the quality of our marriage is our gift to God." Elder Clayton

The importance of being right

Before starting that argument, ask yourself one question:

Is it more important to be right, or to be married?

Driving a Marriage

A friend compared marriage to owning a car:
"If you don't know how to drive, getting a new car won't solve your problem. Better to take some time out and learn some new skills, then to get a new car."


Cars, like marriages, take lots of work to maintain. If you choose the right car it can last a really long time, but not if you're hard on it and skip repairs and routine maintenance.