No matter how good your marriage is, you can make it better. Author Jon Gordon writes: ‘My wife and I just celebrated our eighteenth wedding anniversary. We’ve learned and grown a lot…and I want to share some of our relationship lessons: 1) Choose wisely. One of the most important decisions you’ll ever make is the person you marry. You know you’re with the right person when they give you strength. Looking back…there’s no way I could have done it without my wife. Her love, support, belief and encouragement gave me strength. She believed in me when no one else did. 2) Be willing to improve and grow. Early in our marriage our relationship wasn’t very good. I was young, selfish and quite negative. One day my wife had enough: “I love you but I’m not going to spend my life with someone who makes me miserable. You have to change.” I looked at myself and realised she was right. So I became willing to change and to become a positive influence on my wife, my children and others. 3) Communicate. Communicate. Communicate! Most relationships break down because of poor communication. We’ve had disagreements over the years, but we always communicated, and this allowed us to grow stronger together. 4) Admit when you’re wrong. I’ve been wrong many times and admitted it. I’ve also admitted I was wrong even when I thought I wasn’t. I knew my wife was bothered, and it was more important for her to feel loved than for me to feel right. It takes maturity and a willingness to focus on your spouse more than your ego.’

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.