Building on a good thing: Part 2

In my last article, using the acronym L.O.V.E., I wrote on two of many ways to build on the good thing of marriage. This article will finish that acronym.

V -- Va-va-voom. OK, I am stretching the acronym here. What I am trying to stress is how important it is to wow each other.

The busyness of life has a way of taking a passionate romance and reducing it to a spark. Throw kids in the mix and the red-hot flame can start to resemble an old flashlight with a weak battery. To keep the marriage red hot, it is vital that both husband and wife make efforts to wow each other.

I am not talking about the things you would find on the covers of trash magazines in the grocery aisle. Those articles create more problems and fuel more insecurity and anxiety than providing any possible help. Wowing each other is much simpler.

Have a date night without phones. Remember those anniversaries and birthdays. Put some thought into gifts for those days.

Pick up flowers on the way home just because. Leave a note in his coffee cup -- perhaps even make it a bit risque. It takes little to no expense to take simple steps to wow each other.

E -- Experiences. When coaching couples who are having difficulty, I often try to get them to tell me what it was that attracted them to the other. More times than not, they draw me into a story that tells of an incredible experience. You can see both his and her physical posture change as they recount that joyful time.

One of the reasons love starts to grow cold is because husband and wife stop doing things together. They have trouble loving each other because they stopped enjoying being with each other. He builds his hobbies and interests. She does the same. The next thing you know, they are sitting across from a pastor or a counselor and saying, "We have nothing in common."

It is important to build experiences together, to find both those shared activities and be attentive in the interests of your spouse.

You may do something that you may not like but your spouse does, and vice versa. A lifelong marriage is spent spending time together.

Look over each other's faults, Open doors, Wow each other (va-va-voom) and build Experiences together.

These are four of probably thousands of pieces of advice that are able to build on the good thing of marriage that is gifted and blessed by God (Proverbs 18:22).