On our two posts this week we asked the question–what is the key to a happy marriage.The answers were as varied as the people/marriages answering the question. So which key is the right key?

• Trust
• Love
• Respect
• Communication
• Commitment
• Forgiveness
• Prayer
• Christ-Centered
• Hope
• Loyalty
• Golden-Rule
• Mercy
• Grace
• Generosity
• Perseverance
• Unconditional Love
• Sacrifice

The answer is…they’re all the right answer! 🙂

Wherever God has you in your marriage relationship currently requires your ability to hear from Him what your spouse needs most from you today. This will change as often as your relationship grows and changes.

The most important question is to ask if you know what your spouse needs from you today? Is it your trust? When trust has been broken, this becomes the one area that needs your attention most. Like when an arm is broken, your entire body screams to get that bone fixed as soon as possible. It can be painful learning to trust again, but a lasting marriage requires it.

Maybe your spouse needs your loyalty today more than anything else? It could be that the pain wrought by the disloyalty of friends or other family members is too much to bear alone. Hearing your loyalty as you speak of your spouse to others builds your marriage and helps heal their pain.

Maybe you need to communicate on a deeper level? I know that we’ve been facing this issue in our marriage lately. What used to come easy–communication–has become a bit more strained. We don’t know why, but it demands our attention. I’ll say one thing and Tom hears it another way. Or he’ll say something, and I don’t remember it at all! It could be easy to get angry and dig our heels in, but what’s the point in that? It would only cause more division. What our marriage needs most is to talk more, and be patient with each other in the misunderstandings that occur.  This season won’t last forever. In fact, next week we could be focusing on a different key for a lasting marriage.

The important thing is to know what you’re currently facing. To those of you who have taken the time to consider this question–you already know what area to work on. We thank you for sharing with us, and we want to give away one copy of Fawn Weaver’s new book, Happy Wives Club. If your name is selected, please e-mail us (theromanticvineyard[at]gmail[dot]com) your shipping address, and we’ll get it to you as soon as possible.

Our winner is:

BlestWife

Congratulations! 

It just so happens we have two copies of the book. We’ve decided to give another copy away…

Our second winner is:

Sara Catherine

Congratulations to you too!

If you would like to join the Happy Wives Club and order your own book visit Fawn’s website. Have a great weekend!