This week, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with Cory’s extended family in Tennessee. I decided to take advantage of this time surrounded by six married couples of all ages by collecting marital advice from all of them. In this special bonus post, I’m simply going to share the advice that I was given without commenting on it. Please know that some of the advice was probably meant to be humorous, and most of my “victims” were asked to answer on the spot without a lot of time for reflection. Nevertheless, I think that this collection of thoughts includes many significant and meaningful pieces of advice. Please enjoy!

• Sleep in separate twin beds.
• Distinguish between what you want and what you need.
• Save for retirement early.
• Save your best manners for home.
• Emphasize positive reinforcement.
• The only person you can change is yourself.
• Your actions will reflect your thoughts (so think like the kind of person you want to be).
• Don’t get too impressed with your own accomplishments.

• Don’t compete with each other.
• Save!
• Let him buy golf clubs and let her buy shoes; in other words, you both need to be allowed to splurge a little bit sometimes. Have a certain amount of money set aside each month to allow each other to have some free spending money.
• Control the money!

• Some things are just important to her that you won’t understand, so don’t try to make sense of them. Just let her have those things and make them important to you because they are important to her.

• Two phrases that every husband should know are “yes dear” and “you’re right.”

• Tell it like it is, and forget diplomacy.
• Accept your spouse as they are.

• Share equal responsibility with doing the dishes.
• The baby is never wrong; the parents have to be the first to change, not the children.
• Intentions are important.

• The five second rule doesn’t apply to dropping babies.

• Be okay with being different; you don’t have to be the same person.
• Husbands and wives function together because of their different strengths and weaknesses. You think differently, and that’s a good thing.
• Being right and getting your way aren’t going to make you truly happy in marriage.
• Marriage is a lot of work, so be prepared. It’s not just about being in love, it’s about your commitment and your effort to make it work, even when it’s hard.

• Have separate interests.
• Wives need girl time with their friends and husbands need guy time with their friends. You don’t need to do everything together or be together all of the time.

• Just be happy.
• Spend your life in a happy way and enjoy it while you have it.

• Never go to bed angry.
• Take time to enjoy each other as husband and wife before you have kids.

• Marriage isn’t about building your own kingdom, it’s about building one together for God. Every decision that you make throughout the day is either placing a brick on your kingdom, or on God’s kingdom that you’re building together.

• In areas where you want your husband to lead, he might fail sometimes. If he does fail, don’t just give up and do it yourself; continue to encourage him to lead in that area, and be patient with him.