5. Share family responsibilities.

Slide 5 of 5

From the time you are married, you have become a team. Not like a monarchy above but a team, two people working together to create a family that loves God and wants to do their part to show Jesus to the world. From the time children are old enough to help around the house, they can begin to learn chores. The responsibility for specific chores becomes theirs as soon as they are able. Start simply with something like feeding the dogs or keeping their room neat.

Great marriages are hard to come by and take work. But if that is your goal for your family, you should be willing to work on it. Before we married, someone told us the secret of their long marriage. Marriage is a partnership. To them, that means sometimes each person gives 50%, other times one gives 40% and the other 60%, occasionally one must give 90%, and the other gives 10%. No matter what part you are giving, it is given out of love. There may come a time when one or the other becomes ill and needs help from your spouse. That also is given out of love. I don’t ever think I have felt more loved than when my husband had to take care of me physically after surgery. He was a great nurse and made sure everything was done at the right time so I would recover well.

Recently we celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe we have been married that long. But we had taken the advice of the couple we had asked earlier about the reason for their longevity in marriage. It’s a give-and-take process – sometimes you do more giving, and sometimes you do more taking. But no matter the give and take, your commitment to love each other unconditionally for the rest of your lives is what makes the difference.