5 Tips for a Successful Marriage – 5th Year Anniversary

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Today marks our fifth year anniversary. Hubs is away from work so I’ve been home with our little guy reminiscing about the five years that we have been together. It’s crazy how far we have come, and how much we have grown together. Our marriage is constantly growing, evolving, and with that comes a lot of hard work to make our marriage work. It’s not just the pretty pictures on Instagram you see everyday, but the behind the scenes that makes a happy marriage work. So today I’m sharing a little inside look into our marriage with these gorgeous photos we took in Tulum, and I am sharing five tips for a successful marriage.

5 Tips for a Successful Marriage

• Be 100% honest with each other – I’ve always been the type to tell it how it is. However my husband was not. He was the type that would say “I’m fine” when he really wasn’t. It took me awhile to finally read beyond his “I’m fine” statements, and it took a lot of arguments for us to finally get to a point where we can be openly honest with each other. My husband was always the type that didn’t want to hurt my feelings so he would go with the flow even though it was eating him up inside. Eventually it would just build up and result into a worse fight than if we had originally been 100% honest with each other to begin with. After learning each other’s love language, and learning to be honest with each other regardless if we didn’t always agree has helped us better communicate with each other.

• Put God first – We struggled with our faith at the beginning because we were in two different levels when it came to our personal faith. It was hard for me to accept that my husband didn’t have the same faith in God that I did. As a wife I made a big decision that in order to make this work we were going to have to make God first in our lives, but I was also going to be patient and understanding with my husband with his own journey with God. We ended up going to church every month, even took couples counseling classes at our church, and we found ways to communicate through God. I saw the biggest changes in my husband through this. He began to work on his faith, and becoming the best man he could be for himself and for his family.

• Never stop dating each other – I think this is a problem most marriages face. They get stuck in the same old routine that the excitement and the passion fades away. Just because you are married doesn’t mean the dating has to stop. After having Jayden, Josh went full dad mode that he forgot to be a husband first. I was stuck at home all day, and all I wanted was to escape mommy duty and just enjoy time with my husband. It was one thing we struggled with being new parents is finding the right balance between our love life and family life. We are thankful that we have a great support system with our family who are always wanting to watch Jayden anytime we need time alone together. Our kid free trips would not have been possible without them. We know we are very fortunate and blessed in that category. But you don’t have to take trips to still date each other. It’s honestly the simple things, like when Josh makes me breakfast in bed on his weeks off, or when he sends me flowers when he is away. Or even just the simple fact that for every birthday, anniversary, Mother’s Day Josh takes the time to get me the sweetest cards.

• Surround Yourself With A Great Support System – Our family has always been so supportive in our marriage and also great examples of what healthy marriages look like. They are not perfect by any means but they have been together longer than we have been alive. Having a good support system to help guide you, whether it be family, friends, church will help your marriage grow. We found our circle of friends have changed to include people with similar family values and it’s honestly helped us grow as a couple.

• Never stop fighting for each other – Fighting is not a bad thing if you are fighting for each other. Sometimes we second guess our relationship because we argue, or have disagreements, but honestly as long as y’all are fighting for each other, it’s better than not fighting at all and living in an unhappy marriage, with no communication. I also told my husband the day that we stop fighting for each other, is the day our marriage is over. Because that means we’ve just don’t care anymore, that we would rather just give up than fight for each other. We are a happy couple because we have worked through our differences. We have fought for our marriage. We have fought for the best for each other, and no matter how long we are married, or how old we get, we will always be fighting for marriage, for our happiness, for each other.

Being married isn’t easy. It is a lot of hard work and effort on both sides. These five tips have helped us in so many ways. Every year brings new obstacles, and new challenges. But with every obstacle we have overcome our marriage has grown stronger than ever, and our love for each other continuously grows every passing day. In five years we have done a lot. We have a little family with our little guy, two cats, and a dog, and a new home ready to be filled with more little people. Thankful for these five years and excited to see what the next five holds for us. Happy Anniversary my love!

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