The COVID-19 pandemic is certainly impacting people physically, but it also impacting people emotionally. The statistics are showing that interest & inquiries for divorce are up 34% from the the same quarter of the previous year. 20% of couples married 5 months or less sought divorce, compared to 11% in 2019. Some are estimating that divorce rates will continue to rise as quarantines and work-from-home situations continue.
So, I want to offer 12 "Habits of Happy Hubbies" that can be helpful to all married couples:
1. EMBRACE YOUR SEASON
Stop looking ahead or looking back. Embrace your present season and make the most of every moment.
2. COMMUNICATE KINDLY
Sticks and stone's can break bones AND words can hurt very deeply! Spouses often say things to each other that they would never say to their employer, pastor or even their friends. Choose your words wisely.
Prov.
25:11-5 - A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
3. LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS
Too many marriages end due to the fighting caused by poor financial decisions. Couples MUST learn to live within their means, pay cash, build credit, save and set goals. While stuck in the house, consider taking a Dave Ramsey course online.
Eccl. 5:10 NLT - Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!
Matt. 6:24 - No man can serve two masters… you cannot serve God and money.
4. COMPLIMENT; DON’T CRITICIZE
No one likes to be criticized. Continual criticism has a devastating effect on a marriage.
1 Thess 5:11 NIV - Therefore
encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Eph. 4:29 - Let no corrupt word proceed out of your
mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart
grace to the hearers.
Couples should find ways to worship, serve, pray, study and grow together!
Heb.
10:24 – And
let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.
6. LIVE IN LOVE
Look at this verse, as it reveals what true love looks like and should be the goal in every Christian marriage.
1 Cor. 13:4-7 - Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
7. GIVE PREFERENCE
Preferring your spouse is a simple way to show your care. Selfishness will destroy a marriage, while selflessness will deepen the love relationship.
Phil 2:3-4 - Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
8. GIVE HONOR
Honor is defined as giving the highest respect or granting esteem. Spouses should honor one another; and look at the last part of the verse -- if we fail to honor our spouse... our prayers could be hindered!
1 Peter 3:7 - Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.
9. DRESS FOR SUCCESS
During this time, of quarantine and working at home, so many people have stopped dressing-up for work. Don't forget that your spouse deserves to see you at your best. Practice personal hygiene, shave, fix your hair, put away the sweat pants, and ladies, feel free to wear some make-up while work from home.
10. NURTURE INTIMACY
Intimacy goes far beyond just the physical relationship in marriage. Strive to cultivate spiritual and emotional intimacy in your marriage.
Heb
13:4 - Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed
undefiled…
11. SHARE THE LOAD
Working from home or being quarantined obviously increases the chores around the house. Share the load, pitch-in, and help your spouse. Those acts of kindness usually pay-off BIG! Also, during this time of anxiety, layoffs, financial uncertainty; share openly and bear each others burdens.
Gal. 6:2 - Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
12. RESOLVE CONFLICTS QUICKLY
Holding onto anger NEVER ends well. No one wins -- everyone loses! Settle the matter quickly and try to do so before going to bed. No sense losing a night's sleep and carrying conflict over to the next day.
Eph. 4:26-27 - Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil.
ULTIMATE GOAL
Eph. 5:24-28 - As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself.
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