I wrote The Makings of a Musical Marriage almost a year ago.  It is my top ten list of marital tips.

These tips here are more like little tid bits I’ve picked up here and there throughout this past year.

1. Public encouragement.There is nothing like hearing your spouse talk highly of you to other people or getting that very public shout out on Facebook.  I know a lot of single folks actually loathe “sappy” statuses, but I’m hoping that if you think about it this way those statuses might become more endearing to you.  I would also ask why you loathe such statuses?
2. Holding hands.Joshua gets all the credit for this one.  I admit, when we were first married, actually for the first couple of years, I was irritated by him holding my hand everywhere we went.  Funny thing is, I desperately wanted to want to hold his hand because I loved seeing other couples, young and old, holding hands.  It’s sort of like a proclamation of warmth between the couple.

   Then Joshua went on tour.  All I wanted after that was to grab hold of him whenever I could!  Thank you Jesus for fixing my heart.

3. Join them in the Little Things.

   There are some things that your spouse wants to do that you think are silly and/or a waste of money.  But, the thing is, these things bring your spouse great joy and what does it cost you really?  For me that was going to coffee.  Josh gets giddy about going to get coffee together.  But I stood my ground more often than not because it was money we could be saving.  Then I went to church one Sunday.  The message wasn’t specifically about anything close to loving on your spouse by giving them the little things but there was a moment that Bill Hybels said something that convicted me of withholding simple joys from my husband.  See, Josh and I rarely push $5 at Starbucks on our coffee dates.  From there on out I relinquished my grip on money and asked my husband on a coffee date.  We’ve been going on them ever since and they are one of the best things we do for our marriage!

Anyone else have some helpful marriage tid bits?