Yes, Marriage Can Be Awesome!

Marriage is Awesome! You never hear that do you? But I bet if you thought about it, or just listened for a couple of hours to what the people around you are saying you, would hear lots of negative things about marriage. I was recently asked to commit to 22 days of not saying anything negative about my marriage. I thought it would be easy but boy was I wrong. It was almost natural to have negative things to say about my spouse and what I noticed most was that no one ever called me on the carpet. It's as if it's normal to say bad things about our relationships. Maybe it's because we feel that we need to find others that are equally miserable so that we can find ways to get through our own situation. Or maybe we listen without rebuke because we truly want to help our friend who is "crying out." But how many times have we heard the same person complaining about the same problem and we do nothing? What would happen if we had someone in our life who just told us what we needed to hear: that marriage can be good and it is up to both partners to make it better, but that it's up to each individual to get started. A change in attitude is an amazing thing.

So next time you want to lay it on thick, think of what you do like about your spouse. Think about something that made you fall in love with them. Think about ways that you can use your words to uplift your spouse instead of complain about them. And then try to find a constructive way to talk to your spouse about what is bothering you. Use calm and kind words to talk about the problem. Try to bring to topic to your spouse with a positive approach instead of yelling or nagging. It can make a world of difference!

- The Working Wife