While your spouse might have felt like the most important thing to you when you first got married, once you bring children into the equation, many couples start to prioritize their little ones, their jobs, their hobbies, and other commitments over their marriage. And while this might be fine to do every once in a while, if you consistently put your marriage and your spouse on the backburner, you could find yourself filing for divorce before too long.
So to help ensure that this doesn’t happen to your marriage, here are three ways that you can begin to make your marriage a bigger priority in your life.
Make Time For Just You Two
If you don’t purposely devote time to your spouse, it’s easy to find other ways to fill your time. Because of this, it’s imperative that you schedule in time for you and your spouse to spend one-on-one time together on a regular basis.
According to Robert Taibbi, a contributor to Psychology Today, this time that you spend together will be most beneficial to your marriage if you’re able to share in positive experiences with one another. While this might feel forced and unnatural at first for some, the more time you and your spouse spend really connecting with one another, the more you’ll crave it and will naturally feel yourself making it a priority.
Be More Expressive With Your Love and Appreciation
For the times when you can’t get away with just your spouse, there are still ways that you can show your partner and yourself that your marriage is a priority in your life, starting with how you interact with one another.
Virginia Pelley, a contributor to Fatherly.com, shares that while many parents will openly express their love, appreciation, and happiness with their children, they often forget to do this same thing with their spouse. If this is a habit that you’ve fallen into, you may want to try being more expressive with your verbal love and appreciation for your spouse. Even if it’s just saying one or two nice things each day, it can make a big difference in how you and your spouse see and feel about each other.
Make Hellos and Goodbyes Special
In many marriages, it can feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to really spend quality time with each other. But by investing just a few more seconds into your spouse at key times during the day, you can see major improvements in your marriage.
For example, Marissa Nelson, a contributor to Marriage.com, advises that you try to make your hellos and goodbyes a special time between you and your spouse. By hugging one another for just ten seconds, you can actually start to feel much closer to each other.
If you’ve allowed your marriage to slip down on your priority list, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you bring it back up to where it deserves to be.
