When you got married you vowed to “love, honor and cherish” your spouse “for better or for worse”, “in sickness and in health”, “in poverty and in wealth”, “forsaking all others” till death do you part. You made a lifelong commitment before family, friends and God that extends beyond any health and financial issues that you and your spouse might encounter. Here are some marriage tips to help you stay true to these vows.

Love, honor and cherish your spouse

Loving your spouse sounds easy enough, right? Unfortunately, feeling love and affection towards your spouse is not enough; you need to show that love. This means learning your spouse’s love language so that you can love your spouse the way he or she wants to be loved.

Cherishing your spouse means going out of your way to ensure that your spouse feels treasured, admired and deeply appreciated. Cherishing is easy in the honeymoon stage but often as time goes on, spouses begin to feel taken for granted. You can prevent this by constantly reminding your spouse how special they are to you.

Honoring your spouse simply means showing them respect. Note that it is not your spouse’s responsibility to earn your respect and your decision to honor your spouse should not be dependent on their behavior. You should honor them whether or not they want or deserve to be honored.

For better or for worse, for richer or poorer, and in sickness and in health

Marriage is easy when finances are plentiful and everyone is healthy. However, these traditional marriage vows are there to ensure that spouses stay committed to each other even when doing so is difficult and costly for them as individuals.

Be prepared to face adversity together with your spouse, and to succeed or fail together. Your well being as a couple should always take precedence over your individual well being.  Please note that these marriage tips do not apply to cases of abuse.

Forsaking all others

The vow to forsake all others goes beyond staying faithful and keeping the marriage bed pure. It also means “forsaking” or leaving behind your friends and family for the sake of your marriage. This is because heavy reliance on and intimate closeness with your friends and family can prevent you from developing a deep closeness to your spouse.

Exchanging marriage vows before family, friends and God can be nerve wracking so many couples tend to rush through it. This article provides a simple explanation of what some of those vows mean and provides marriage tips and advice for newlyweds who want to stay true to their vows.