If you follow along with our blog, you might have just seen us post our mission statement recently. In our business we want to not only take pretty pictures, but gain relationships with our clients. And our ultimate goal is to strengthen marriages and create legacies of love for the generations to come to look back on. Since last October, I have really wanted to create a once a month blog series that speaks about marriage. Posts that people could read to find date ideas, simple ways to try to improve their marriage, and tips to help them create their legacy of love. These monthly posts will be on the last Monday of each month!

To preface this series, my college major was marriage and family studies. I’ve read a lot of books, studies, and articles, about marriage and divorce. I will share things I’ve learned from my classes and personal experience.

As a wife, I have often seen that when women get together, it becomes a time when husband “bashing” happens. So and so’s husband is being lazy. So and so’s husband hasn’t bought her flowers for months. So and so’s husband isn’t being smart. These times that are used to “vent” only cause more problems than good. When we speak negatively about something or someone, we begin to see only those negative things. We even go as far as to seek out what they are doing wrong. Those times when we choose to be part of those spouse “bashing” conversations, we are hurting our marriages. The hurt it causes, may only be small, but when the boulder starts going down the side of a mountain, as slow as it may go at first, it picks up speed.

When placed in a situation where others around you are speaking negatively about their spouses, take the age old advice- if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. If you feel like speaking, take that time to compliment, praise, and speak highly of them. Just as speaking negatively will lead to negatively thinking about our spouses, speaking positive will cause us to see more good in them. What would you rather have your spouse see in you, the positive or the negative? Give them that same courtesy and begin speaking highly of them.

If there is something going on with your spouse that may be frustrating to you or causing you to feel the need to vent, talk to your spouse about those things. Look for ways to improve those circumstances!

Our challenge to you today: For the next month, do not speak negatively about your spouse to ANYONE. Speak positively about him/her or do not say anything at all.