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20 Marriage Tips for the Men

Posted on September 1st, 2013

This article comes from http://geraldrogers.com/ — and I loved it so much, I wanted to reproduce it exactly as it is on my blog.

Well done Gerald for sharing your learning with the world. Enjoy.

Below are 20 wise marriage tips from a man that was recently divorced. You wouldn’t normally think that a divorced man would give good advice on being a husband, but this man has been through enough hardship to know what is worth fighting for.

Marriage advice I wish I would have had

Obviously, I’m not a relationship expert. But there’s something about my divorce being finalized this week that gives me perspective of things I wish I would have done differently. After losing a woman that I loved, and a marriage of almost 16 years, here’s the advice I wish I would have had.

Never stop courting. Never stop dating. Never ever take that woman for granted

When you asked her to marry you, you promised to be that man that would own her heart and to fiercely protect it. This is the most important and sacred treasure you will ever be entrusted with. SHE CHOSE YOU. Never forget that, and NEVER GET LAZY in your love.
DIY-divorce

 

Protect your own heart

Just as you committed to being the protector of her heart, you must guard your own with the same vigilance. Love yourself fully, love the world openly, but there is a special place in your heart where no one must enter except for your wife.
Keep that space always ready to receive her and invite her in, and refuse to let anyone or anything else enter there.

Fall in love over and over and over again

You will constantly change. You’re not the same people you were when you got married, and in five years you will not be the same person you are today. Change will come, and in that you have to re-choose each other everyday.

She doesn’t have to stay with you, and if you don’t take care of her heart, she may give that heart to someone else or seal you out completely, and you may never be able to get it back. Always fight to win her love just as you did when you were courting her.

Always see the best in her

Focus only on what you love. What you focus on will expand. If you focus on what bugs you, all you will see is reasons to be bugged. If you focus on what you love, you can’t help but be consumed by love.
Focus to the point where you can no longer see anything but love, and you know without a doubt that you are the luckiest man on earth to be have this woman as your wife.

It’s not your job to change or fix her

your job is to love her as she is with no expectation of her ever changing. And if she changes, love what she becomes, whether it’s what you wanted or not.

Take full accountability for your own emotions

It’s not your wife’s job to make you happy, and she can’t make you sad. You are responsible for finding your own happiness, and through that your joy will spill over into your relationship and your love.

Never blame your wife

If you get frustrated or angry at her, it is only because it is triggering something inside of you.  They are YOUR emotions, and your responsibility. When you feel those feelings take time to get present and to look within and understand what it is inside of YOU that is asking to be healed.
You were attracted to this woman because she was the person best suited to trigger all of your childhood wounds in the most painful way so that you could heal them. When you heal yourself, you will no longer be triggered by her, and you will wonder why you ever were.

Allow your woman to just be

When she’s sad or upset, it’s not your job to fix it. It’s your job to HOLD HER and let her know it’s ok. Let her know that you hear her, and that she’s important and that you are that pillar on which she can always lean.

Don’t run away when she’s upset

The feminine spirit is about change and emotion, and, like a storm, her emotions will sometimes roll in and out. As you remain strong and unjudging, she will trust you and open her soul to you. Stand present and strong and let her know you aren’t going anywhere; listen to what she is really saying behind the words and emotion.

Be silly

Don’t take yourself so damn seriously. Laugh. And make her laugh. Laughter makes everything else easier.

Fill her soul everyday

Learn her love language and the specific ways that she feels important, validated, and CHERISHED. Ask her to create a list of 10 THINGS that make her feel loved and memorize those things and make it a priority everyday to make her feel like a queen.

Be present

Give her not only your time, but your focus, your attention and your soul. Do whatever it takes to clear your head so that when you are with her you are fully WITH HER. Treat her as you would your most valuable client. She is.

Be willing to take her sexually

Be willing to carry her away in the power of your masculine presence, to consume her and devour her with your strength, and to penetrate her to the deepest levels of her soul. Let her melt into her feminine softness as she knows she can trust you fully.

Don’t be an idiot

..and don’t be afraid of being one either. You will make mistakes and so will she. Try not to make too big a deal of mistakes, and learn from the ones you do make. You’re not supposed to be perfect. Just try to not be too stupid.

Give her space

The woman is so good at giving and giving, and sometimes she will need to be reminded to take time to nurture herself. Sometimes she will need to fly from your branches to go and find what feeds her soul, and if you give her that space she will come back with new songs to sing.
Okay, I might be getting a little too poetic here, but you get the point. Tell her to take time for herself, ESPECIALLY after you have kids. She needs that space to renew and get re-centered, and to find herself after she gets lost in serving you, the kids and the world.

Be vulnerable

You don’t have to have it all together. Be willing to share your fears and feelings, and quick to acknowledge your mistakes.

Be fully transparent

If you want to have trust you must be willing to share everything… especially those things you don’t want to share.

It takes courage to fully love, to fully open your heart and let her in when you don’t know if she will like what she finds. Part of that courage is allowing her to love you completely — your darkness as well as your light.

Drop the mask

If you feel like you need to wear a mask around her, and show up perfect all the time, you will never experience the full dimension of what love can be.

Never stop growing together

The stagnant pond breeds malaria while the flowing stream is always fresh and cool. Atrophy is the natural process when you stop working a muscle, just as it is if you stop working on your relationship. Find common goals, dreams and visions to work towards.

Don’t worry about money

Money is a game. Find ways to work together as a team to win at it. It never helps when teammates fight, so figure out ways to leverage the strengths of you both to win.

Forgive immediately

Focus on the future rather than carrying weight from the past. Don’t let your history hold you hostage. Holding onto past mistakes that either you or she makes is like a heavy anchor to your marriage and will hold you back. FORGIVENESS IS FREEDOM. Cut the anchor loose and always choose love.

Always choose love, always choose love, always choose love

In the end, this is the only advice you need. If this is the guiding principle through which all your choices is governed, there is nothing that will threaten the happiness of your marriage. Love will always endure.

In the end, marriage isn’t about happily ever after.

It’s about work and a commitment to grow together and a willingness to continually invest in creating something that can endure eternity. Through that work, the happiness will come.
Marriage is life, and it will bring ups and downs. Embracing all of the cycles and learning to learn from and love each experience will bring the strength and perspective to keep building, one brick at a time.

These are lessons I learned the hard way. These are lessons I learned too late.

But these are lessons I am learning and committed in carrying forward. The truth is, I LOVED being married, and in time, I will get married again. When I do, I will build it with a foundation that will endure any storm and any amount of time.
If you are reading this and find wisdom in my pain, share it with those young husbands whose hearts are still full of hope, and with those couples you may know who may have forgotten how to love.
One of those men may be like I was, and in these hard earned lessons perhaps something will awaken in him and he will learn to be the man his lady has been waiting for. The woman that told him ‘I do’, and trusted him with her life, has been waiting for this man to step up.

If you are reading this and your marriage isn’t what you want it to be, take 100% responsibility for YOUR PART in marriage, regardless of where your spouse is at, and commit to applying these lessons while there is time.

Men, this is your charge: Commit to being an epic lover.

There is no greater challenge, and no greater prize. Your woman deserves that from you.
Be the type of husband your wife can’t help but brag about.
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Simply beautiful.

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook.

With you in service
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3 thoughts on “20 Marriage Tips for the Men

  1. Please read the first 7 chapters of Proverbs. It is Solomon’s wisdom for son’s regarding women. Simply the best advice a young man could ever read regarding women.
    In today’s feminist culture, men cannot live up to the expectations of women…
    Proverbs 21: 9 & 19 also 25:24…age old wisdom. Men can not and will not live
    in an environment of contempt.

  2. So so true………and its only when you havent got it that you realise what you had!!
    This is also true….” When a couple get together,the woman thinks the man will change and he DOESNT,and the man thinks the woman wont change and she DOES.
    You words are beautiful in their intensity and feeling and truth.
    THANK YOU

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