A Community Service of The Center for Relationship Enrichment

NWA Healthy Marriages

Resources

Ideas for Strengthening Marriages

*Download a printable version of "Ideas for celebrating National Marriage Week" (PDF)

Strengthening Your Own Marriage

Here are 40 ways to show your spouse love so that your relationship can be the best advertisement for marriage. 

  1. Compliment them often.
  2. Extend grace and be forgiving when they offend you.
  3. Give them time to be alone.
  4. Express how much you appreciate them. Be specific.
  5. Brag about them to other people.
  6. Honor them in front of the children.
  7. Give them the benefit of the doubt.
  8. Be a good listener.
  9. Exhibit humility, admit your mistakes, and ask for forgiveness.
  10. Defend them to others—especially to your family.
  11. Give them your undivided attention when they want to talk.
  12. Let go of the small stuff. 
  13. Call, email or text each other during the day.
  14. Tell them that you both love AND like them.
  15. Look for ways to laugh together.
  16. Call them at work just to say "Hi."
  17. Say: "I love you."
  18. Offer to help.
  19. Ask them to show you how to do something.
  20. Ask them what they like sexually.
  21. Attend a marriage seminar.
  22. Cuddle.
  23. Put your arm around them in front of others.
  24. Take them out on a weekly date.
  25. Look at old photos together.
  26. Hold hands.
  27. Do a work project together.
  28. Smile more when you look at them.
  29. Read something together about how to have a better relationship.
  30. Say "Good morning" first.
  31. Surprise them with a small gift.
  32. Ask them how they feel.
  33. Let them know when you are proud of them.
  34. Ask for their opinion.
  35. Have them teach you something they know.
  36. Discuss future plans with them.
  37. Ask them about their dreams.
  38. Let them know when you've thought of them during the day.
  39. Tell them when they look attractive.
  40. Send them an e-card.

The marriages of Family and Friends

  1. Celebrate the anniversaries of your family and friends in a special way.
  2. Write letter of appreciation to couples who have inspired and strengthened your marriage.
  3. Invite other couples to come together for fun, either for a meal at your home, or a picnic, or to go bowling, to watch a marriage strengthening DVD, etc.
  4. Give marriage strengthening books, videos, DVDs and tapes as engagement, wedding, birth, anniversary and birthday gifts.
  5. Offer to provide babysitting, or have your friends’ children sleep at your home for the night, so that couples can go out together and have some time alone.
  6. Encourage couples to attend an annual marriage event. 
  7. Encourage couples to regularly visit the www.nwamarriages.com website.
  8. Talk to teachers about the benefits to their pupils when their parents have happy marriages. Invite the school to help sponsor an event to strengthen the parents’ marriages.
  9. Run a marriage small group for couples in your own home. 
  10. Write letters to the editor of your local paper praising any community effort to strengthen marriages. Encourage them to run feature articles on couples who have been married a long time.

The Marriages of Those in Your Church Community

  1. Encourage your church to honor those who have been married for a long time. 
  2. Encourage your church to advertise local marriage events.
  3. Plan marriage enhancing events for your church congregation every year.  
  4. Take care of the marriages of your church leaders. Pay for them to attend a marriage event for leaders.
  5. Encourage your church leaders to preach about marriage regularly, at least once a year during National Marriage Week (February 7th to 14th).
  6. Make sure that every couple who is married in your church is well prepared for marriage.  
  7. Provide good relationship education for teens in the church.
  8.  Start a marriage strengthening resource library at your church.  
  9. Make sure that your church has information directing couples to counselors who are skilled at working with marriages in crisis.
  10. Offer a monthly “parent’s night out” to encourage couples to go on a date night.

Marriages in Your Workplace

  1. Talk to your employer about the benefits of workers who have happy marriages (happier, healthier, and more productive work-force) and help raise awareness of the need to invest in the marriages of employees.  Click here for research to support your case.
  2. At work parties and banquets have a time where the husbands and wives of employees are honored and thanked.
  3. Send a card or email when your colleagues are having their wedding anniversaries.
  4. Offer to run lunch-time marriage strengthening courses in the workplace.
  5. Advertise local marriage enrichment events around the office.
  6. Incentivize Employees to participate in relational wellness programs/services (i.e. extra time off, offer free programs/services, pay for childcare to attend a conference, give relational wellness credits towards bonuses, etc.)
  7. If your employer puts extra pressure on the workforce to work long hours, challenge the practice and encourage work patterns that support marriages and families, instead of those that add extra stresses to relationships.
  8. Make your employees and peers aware of the variety of services offered by NWA Healthy Marriages.