The Golden Rules for an Awesome Relationship

Wanna know where you can go to get some free tips on how to make your relationship work? Cracker Barrel. It might sound crazy, but go in there pretty much any time of the day and you’ll see some senior couples who will be more than happy to share some of their insight and wisdom with you.

If you can’t make it over that way today, we’ve got a few tips of our own. We don’t even begin to profess that one article can cover such a vast and important topic. What we do know for sure, though, is these six golden rules are foundational for any kind of relational success.

1. Be honest

When some people hear “Be honest”, what usually comes to their mind is “Don’t cheat.” Yes, that’s a part of what comes with being in an honest relationship, but there’s more. Have you ever heard the quote “People change and forget to tell each other?” A part of what comes with being in a relationship with someone else is being honest about who and where you are at different seasons and stages of life. Be honest about your wants. Be honest about your needs. Be honest about your dreams and aspirations. You deserve to have someone love the real you. They can only do that if you show them who that is.

2. Be loving

When someone says “I love you”, that is only the beginning. It means they are declaring how they feel and their intent to show it through their actions. Whether or not you’re a religious person, the Love Chapter (I Corinthians 13) in the Bible is a wonderful blueprint for love. Be patient, kind and willing to believe in and endure with your partner. True love? It never fails.

3. Be empathetic

There really is no telling how many relationships would last if people committed to getting this one thing down. Empathy is about trying to relate to what someone is going through. It’s more than saying “I hate you feel that way” or “I hate that happened to you”. It’s about really hearing where they’re coming from and then trying to understand. When you seek to empathize with your partner, them being afraid of losing their job, being worried about their mom’s health or being stressed out over bills will be more than “their problem”. You will be able to connect with them and their emotions/experiences in a profound and significant kind of way.

4. Be patient

Patient people don’t just wait. Not by a long shot. When you’re patient it means that you’re “bearing provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain, etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like”. A lover who is patient is a lover who is great at being in a relationship with another human being.

5. Be committed

Commitment is not a feeling. It is a choice. Each day that two people wake up and look each other in the face, they have to make a decision about whether or not they are going to stay together. That’s one reason why it’s a good idea to take love (like everything else in life), one step at a time. A couple who have made the mutual decision to remain together no matter what is a couple who are truly invincible.

6. BE FUN

What’s the point in being in a relationship if you’re not going to have any fun? Your partner should be the one you can share jokes with, laugh with and have a ball with! Couples who enjoy each other are way ahead of the game when it comes to doing what’s needed to make a relationship last. If you and yours love spending time together, smile. You have a pretty awesome relationship!