What is the difference between your wife and your best friend?
I want you to remember when you were a little kid… Who is your best friend in elementary school? Who is your best friend in high school? What about high school? Middle School?
Well, the way you’ve been communicating with your best friends all your life is the same way you should be communicating with your wife right now. A lot of men don’t understand this or don’t put this advice into practice, and I personally think this is part of the reason why divorce rates are so high right now.
Of course, that’s easier said than done, so as you continue to read this article, I’m going to show you what you need to do to repair your relationship with your wife and take your marriage communication to the next level.
Sounds good?
Is your wife your best friend?
If you’re like most of us, you’ve probably had two or three “best friends” over the years. Even if you didn’t know it at the time, all of your relationships with those people had one thing in common…
You can feel safe saying ANYTHING to your best friend
Stories, experiences, negative feelings, happy feelings, criticism, difficult times, good times… You can share everything with your best friend!
So how does that differ from how most men handle relationships with their wives?
Most men don’t like to share negative feelings.
If you’re like most husbands, you probably don’t have a problem sharing all the good times with your wife. Surely you love to tell her a good story and share good experiences with her.
After all, that’s what marriage is all about, right?
Well, it actually goes beyond that… A big part of a healthy marriage is having a trusting relationship where you are free to talk about positive and negative feelings with each other. Just like your relationship with your best friend, your relationship with your wife should be limitless when it comes to topics of conversation.
In other words, if you feel like there’s a problem in the relationship, approach it the same way you would your best friend.
Explain your problems politely, empathetically, and generally, and focus on finding a solution rather than placing blame.
What happens when you allow marital problems to fester?
I mean, do I really need to answer this question?
Here’s a fun fact for you: About 55% of people admit they don’t tell their partners about problems they see in a marriage, and the US divorce rate is 46%.
Which couples do you think are divorcing: the ones openly addressing their issues versus the ones letting them boil under the surface?
The importance of friendship in marriage
The fact is that no marriage has ever been all fireworks, all the time. 1 year goes by, 2 years, 3 years, 10 years, 25 years, and things won’t ALWAYS be exciting, or necessarily enjoyable.
There will be problems; there will be downtime; there will be sacrifice. That doesn’t mean you can’t have an exciting and passionate marriage ALL your life, but it does mean that it will take work.