Is the passion in your marriage starting to fade? Has your relationship with your spouse suddenly turned dull and routine? If this is happening to your marriage, don’t become discouraged. There are steps that you can take to put the spark back into your relationship. Following are sixteen tips to help keep the romance alive in a marriage.
- Start and end each day with loving gestures. Give your spouse a hug and a kiss in the mornings when they awaken and each night at bedtime.
- Show commitment to your marriage by wearing your wedding ring every day. If you have the type of job where you must remove your ring, be sure to put it back on at the end of the work day.
- Show affection to your spouse with an unexpected touch or kiss. Hold their hand while out in public.
- Look your best every day for your spouse. Wives, style your hair, put on makeup and wear your favorite perfume. Husbands, comb your hair, trim your beard and/or mustache and wear your favorite cologne.
- Plan a special "date night" each week with your spouse. Hire a trusted babysitter for the kids and go out alone together for dinner and a movie.
- Spend some quiet time alone with your spouse in the evenings. Talk about your hopes and dreams for the future. Reminisce about the special moments you have shared together over the years.
- Spend time with your spouse enjoying the beauty of nature. Take a walk together in the park, go on a scenic drive in the mountains or have a picnic at the beach.
- Don't use hurtful words when angry at each other. Sit down with your spouse and discuss the problem together in a calm manner.
- Be a good listener. Whenever you spouse feels the need to talk, stop whatever you are doing and pay attention to what they are saying.
- Show your spouse the respect they deserve by saying "please" and "thank you."
- Show encouragement and support whenever your spouse attempts something new.
- If your spouse takes their lunch to work, place a love note in their lunch-box each day. If they eat out, arrange to meet them for lunch.
- After a hard day at work, ease your spouse's sore, aching muscles with a soothing, gentle massage.
- Don't act selfish. Put your spouse's needs before your own.
- Don't wait for special occasions, surprise your spouse throughout the year with small, inexpensive gifts.
- Apologize to your spouse for any misunderstandings that you may have been the cause of.
