“Your spouse should be your best friend.” This is something we’re told time and time again, and with good reason—it’s essential that you find the deepest friendship, respect, and connection with the person you choose to spend your life with.
Writer Tim Urban said it best: “When you’re choosing a life partner, you’re choosing a lot of things, including your parenting partner and someone who will deeply influence your children, your eating companion for about 20,000 meals, your travel companion for about 100 vacations, your primary leisure time and retirement friend, your career therapist, and someone whose day you’ll hear about 18,000 times.” Doing all of this with someone you can call your best friend is going to make life a whole lot easier.
So, what does it truly mean to marry your best friend? Here’s some insight!
You make each other better.
Challenging each other to become the best version of yourselves is the sign of a great marriage. However, there are healthy (and not so healthy) ways to go about this. If you constantly come off as though you’re nagging your spouse to improve, it can make them feel like nothing they do will ever be good enough. Rather than demanding your spouse to get better at certain things, commit to supporting them and cheering them on as they work toward bettering themselves.
This article has some great tips on how to help each other excel in life in a healthy, loving way.
You stick together.
Life isn’t always going to be perfect. In fact, hard things are inevitably going to come up, whether it’s in your personal life, your career, etc. The best relationships are the ones in which you know that you’ll never have to face those hard things by yourself. You have a built-in teammate!
Disagreements will likely come up between you and your partner—it’s inevitable. It’s all about remembering the fact that you are a team, especially when conflict arises. Remember, it’s not “me against you”, it’s “both of us against the problem.”
You have fun together (and laugh a lot).
Life can be stressful, especially when navigating parenthood, life changes, big decisions, and so on. The most important thing is that while your spouse goes through all of that with you, you should also constantly remind each other to never take life too seriously. Studies show that couples who laugh together tend to have healthier, higher-quality relationships.
When life starts to pile on, the fun that you had in the beginning of your relationship can start to fade. If your marriage could use a little reboot in this department, try out a few of our suggestions!
How to Prioritize Fun in Marriage
- Try new things together.
- Plan regular date nights with or without the kids.
- Show appreciation for one another.
- Learn and honor each other’s love languages.
- Allow yourselves to be goofy every now and then.
There are so many factors that go into a great marriage or relationship, but the most important of all is that the relationship is built on a foundation of friendship and communication. Whether you’re engaged, dating, or you’ve been with your partner for 30 years, these are tell-all signs that the one you’re with is truly your best friend.
Bringing out the best in your spouse is the key to a great marriage! We shared our tips, here.
