Marriage: How We Love Through Our Differences

How do two completely different people join together as one, and live happily ever after?

This is the magic question that every married couple wants the answer to. Some couples make it work, but unfortunately, statistics show that over 40% of marriages don’t work and end in divorce. Now lets be clear; I am not promising that you will find all of the answers to a perfect marriage in this post, but I am sharing that I believe in marriage and I know it can work with strategy, commitment, prayer and communication.

Marriage is joining two individuals into one. It takes dedication from both parties to make it work. Then add in additional factors such as busy schedules, businesses, friends, family and everyday life demands, and it can be downright craziness. Finding the right person who can love you through your differences isn’t an easy task. Frankly, I truly think finding your mate is an act of God, because I know God sent George who loves me exactly as I am. I may seem perfect, but I have days where I get on George’s nerves like he has days where he gets on my nerves. Trust me….we are human :).  

George and I got married on September 27th 2015, so you may be questioning if I even know enough to offer marriage tips on my blog. Trust me…..our marriage has been far from the average newlywed experience. In our first 2 years of marriage, we had to navigate major health obstacles, life threatening surgeries, medical treatments, fertility solutions, etc. It feels like we’ve been married for 20 years with all that we’ve faced, but each situation has made us stronger. George and I are very intentional about putting our relationship first, and doing whatever it takes to keep it fun and keep it going. We don’t want to end up in that 40 percentile, so we strive to be strategic with how we approach our marriage. Here are 5 strategies that we’ve implemented as marriage best practices to keep us on track and keep us happy.

1. We Support Each Others Businesses & Dreams: Your spouse should be your biggest cheerleader. If the person that loves you the most, shoots down your dreams, side hustles and business aspirations, it can leave you feeling disappointed and not supported. George runs an empire called Makescents2me, and I run an empire called Bornmajestic.com, and we always try to promote each others businesses, attend each others events, and respect each others allotted business times when we are working on business tasks. Its not easy and it takes sacrifice to both be hustlers with personal aspirations. We work on our brands and businesses late at night and early in the morning, often cutting into some of our couple time, but we’ve both committed to being our best, and we make sure each others dreams are prioritized.
2. We Split Household Responsibilities: We are not in the 1950’s. George can cook just as good as I can cook. We split household task like dinner, laundry, dishes, etc. We both work and both split duties equally which is fair and keeps everyone happy around the house.
3. We Still Date: We schedule date nights to ensure that our quality time is prioritized. We schedule a weekly meeting to talk about our plans and to block off uninterrupted time for us. This could be dinner, this could be an activity or literally just laying on the couch for a netflix and chill night. Its scheduled so that we don’t get caught up in “being busy” and not prioritizing our relationship. 
4. We Push Each Other to Be our Best: We both strive to eat healthy. We both strive to always learn and develop personally. We will often ask each other what books we are reading, what podcast we are listening to, what new challenges are we taking on, etc. We discuss mental health and encourage counsel. We are both ambitious, so we have to constantly keep a pulse on when we are getting off balance.  We look out for each other and can tell when we need to stop and have a seat to recharge. 
5. We Communicate: We talk and discuss what makes us happy and what drives us crazy. We call each other out when something is just not right, and we do it with love and respect, never yelling or belittling each other. We don’t expect each other to be mind readers, so we are very clear and open about how we feel and what we need from each other to be loved & respected.

In what ways do you love through your differences?