Marriage Is Worth The Effort

What is a lasting happy marriage worth? It is a precious thing—it contributes greatly to the health and wellbeing of the partners involved. Lasting happy marriages make for happy, secure, well-adjusted families. Strong, healthy families contributes to the stability of the community and strength of the country.

It is possible to continue to feed the flames of love. It is possible for your love, rather than fading and dying, to grow into something much deeper and more meaningful. The cost and effort of maintaining a happy marriage are much less that the cost and effort of getting a divorce. The key is to start early and be consistent.

What does it take to create a lasting happy marriage? First you choose the one you love and then you love the one you chose. You stop looking around to see if there might be a better match out there. Keep your eyes and your heart aimed at your partner and put your time and energy into creating a relationship that works for both of you.

Respect is of upmost importance for creating a harmonious relationship. Disrespect wears down self-esteem, satisfaction and commitment. It can be difficult to stay committed to a relationship that leaves you feeling inadequate and unimportant. A word of caution here, it is important to recognize the difference between your partner being disrespectful to you and your beliefs about yourself making it difficult for you to feel loved and respected by your partner. If you strongly believe that you are unlovable and constantly find yourself disrespected by others, there may be a belief deep inside you that is creating that reality in your life.

Time together, fun time together is the next important ingredient. It is virtually impossible to maintain a happy lasting marriage without talking to each other and enjoying each other's company. Too often couples allow their relationship to slide to the bottom of the priority list and then are surprised that their feelings for each other have diminished.

Maintaining a lasting happy marriage requires that we grow individually and as a couple. It requires that we mature together, that we learn to overcome our immature tendencies, that we practice loving each other especially when we are least loveable.

If your relationship is struggling, but you have the least bit of hope that your marriage is salvageable then you owe it to yourself to give it your best before deciding to leave. Giving it your best means taking a good hard look at how you are contributing to the problems in the relationship. It means being honest with yourself and with your partner. It means giving 100% and letting go of score keeping.

Not all marriages are worth saving. If there are patterns of abuse, addiction or ongoing betrayal then parting may be in your best interests. It is possible to love each other and at the same time bring out the worst in each other. But if you believe that your relationship may be worth saving, then you will probably regret leaving, but you will not regret doing your best to create a great relationship together.