Relationship Gratitude: Pray for Your Partner and Your Marriage!

If you have a great relationship or not, if you are religious or not at some point you have said a prayer for your spouse. Maybe he/she was sick and you wanted him/her to get better. Maybe you wanted him/her to just find a job. Maybe you just wanted your relationship to get better.

Either way, at some point you have said a prayer or some words of encouragement.

If you never have, today is a good day to start.

According to Dr. Bill Gaultiere, Executive Director of New Hope Now says, "It's important that you have to let go of expecting your spouse to change and work on yourself. Developing a better marriage begins with becoming a better spouse yourself!

Here are five of his tips for praying for your marriage!

• Pray. Ask your spouse how you can pray for him/her. If appropriate pray together for one another and your marriage. In either case, pray for your marriage privately or with a confidante.
  
  
• Get help. Talk with others you trust and respect in confidence about your marriage and your role in it. Seek compassionate support and solicit honest feedback on what you need to work on.
  
  
• Work to improve your own weaknesses. People with strong character that I know are aware of their faults and work to improve themselves. They learn from the feedback about themselves that they receive from others and are invested in their own growth. Perhaps more than any other relationship, marriage makes us aware of our personal issues that we need to work on. Accept this as an opportunity for personal growth.
  
  
• Be considerate of your spouse's weaknesses. In troubled marriages the partners criticize each other's faults, continually expecting each other to be different than they are. By contrast, in growing marriages partners compensate for one another's weakness by anticipating them and working around them. Give your spouse grace!
  
  
• Affirm your spouse's strengths. Verbalize admiration and appreciation for the good qualities and contributions he or she makes. This is just as important for little things like, "Thanks for taking out the trash" as it is for big things like, "I admire you as a parent. You really put yourself into caring for our kids." Appreciation is especially valuable if it relates directly to your marriage. For instance, a wife said to her husband, "It meant a lot to me when you took time to listen to me last night before we went to bed. Thanks."

Coach Keith