SUCCESS MAKING

Healing Bible Verses – Why did you develop The Power of Heavenly Confidence?

Living Happily ever after!

While planning your special wedding day don’t forget to plan for a successful marriage. We all make the plans for the perfect meal, dress, cake, pictures, programs, honeymoon, invitations and more. Days go by with fun and exhausting! decisions to bring this wonderful loving day to pass. In all this excitement and hours and hours of planning for a successful wedding day, what plans have you made to have a successful marriage and life together?? Some couples hire wedding planners to help them plan for a successful wedding day, but how many really give much thought and efforts into how to plan for a lasting and loving until death do us part marriage?

Tips to ponder:

Have realistic expectations for your marriage, your spouse and yourself: I have heard marriage compared to eating with chopsticks it looks easy until you try it. The honeymoon feeling can cover-up some of the things you may find irritating later in marriage. If I could tell a newly married couple only one thing it would be, without a doubt, to expect their marriage to be different than they planned and thought it would be. Unrealistic expectations can ruin the hopes and dreams of what is really just a normal stage of getting to know each other better in a healthy relationship. Those dreamy eyes of your partner can excuse the fact that they are regularly late to pick you up for a date and those magical kisses can dismiss a messy house that later makes you want to blow a gasket. Knowing ahead of time you will have growing pains throughout your marriage will help when you notice these little things bothering you.

Commit to a life-long relationship: Making this decision from the very beginning of your relationship will help when you are faced with disappointing times in your marriage. A strong marriage is not build only on happiness (although there will be much of that), it is built on a commitment to one another. Your spouse is going to change physically and emotionally and you will change in their eyes also. Make a commitment to your spouse to help them through the sicknesses, financial stresses, disagreements and unforeseen issues that can end up strengthening a loving bond as you tackle them together.

Realize you were made differently: It is easy to see our physical differences. He wears a size 11 men’s shoe and you wear a size 8 women’s shoe. We do not expect our spouses to wear our clothes and shoes, we accept that we were made different on the outside. However, in a marriage we can get mixed up into thinking we should each want to snuggle, kiss, socialize, spend money and look at situations the same. We have each been given special characteristics to fulfill the purpose of our life. In my ministry we call them different and unique temperaments. Understand we were made to think and act differently and that there will be times in your marriage you will have differences of opinions. A friendly lets just agree to disagree attitude will be needed to lighten the air! Sometimes when I totally disagree with his opinion I have found it helpful and a little humorous to give him the right to be wrong.

Spend quality time together: We live in a busy world we are busy working, watching TV, on the computer, spending time with the kids, doing chores, enjoying our hobbies, along with many other things that occupy our time. How many of us have had best friends that are now passed acquaintances because we didn’t stay in touch? Plan to spend special time each week alone. Go out for dinner, a movie, a motorcycle ride, a romantic walk or just simply do something that will lighten your spouse’s load. Take the time to re-evaluate what is most important to you (your marriage!) and don’t let other less important things get in the way of your relationship.

Marriage is a great and rewarding gift to be shared with the one you love, but it is also one of the hardest things you will ever experience. Knowing that almost 50% of today’s marriages end in divorce can give you the head start into realizing you will not only have to plan for a wonderful wedding but also for a wonderful marriage. To plan for a successful marriage, I suggest reading at least two relationship books per year. Some of my personal favorites are: The Five Love Languages, The Love Dare, and of course, my new book Kissing and Cooking for couples. Learn all you can from others and incorporate what fits into your marriage.

We can mistake love as a magical thing, thinking it simply happens because it’s love. Yet we have been told over and over again by speakers and on plaques love is kind, patient, doesn’t envy and doesn’t seek its own way. Hmm, sounds like there is something for us to consider in our own behavior for its success. Have a ritual on Friday mornings while driving to work to reflect about how you’re doing with enhancing the romance in your life. So, start planning the daily kisses, talks, hugs, and other surprises to start a fulfilling life with the one you have chosen to share your life with.

Enjoy living Happy Ever After, Kim Reutzel

About the Author

Kim Reutzel is the founder of Inspiration for Women Ministries, a

non-profit/non-denominational Christian counseling centers, located in

Burt, IA. She has earned a master’s degree in Clinical Christian

Counseling from Cornerstone University, is a NCCC Licensed Clinical

Christian Counselor and a NCCA Licensed Temperament Therapist. She is

a nationally known speaker at large and small events around the US.

Kim and her best selling book, Kissing and Cooking for Couples have

been featured on the 700 Club, the Harvest Show and over 300 radio

shows across the country. She is a regular columnist for Women Inc

magazine and editor of the e-magazine Living Beautiful, Inside and

Out. She loves to encourage others to be and know the person God has

created them to be. Kim has been married to Del for 26 years and has

two children and two grandchild.