Five Ways I Am Working On Being A Better Wife

Since January, I have been making my marriage a greater priority. To be honest, I am not sure I ever gave a ton of thought as to how to be an excellent wife. After having Elizabeth (baby number two) I felt marriage and my relationship with Tyler become more of a challenge.

We have since been to a few counselling sessions and one marriage workshop. I originally went into counselling with a few things I thought Tyler needed to change and came out realizing I needed to change a lot of things about myself. Marriage is a sacrifice and putting someone else before your own needs. The reality of this did not hit me until year 6 into our marriage.

I want to be a good wife because the strength of my relationship with Tyler is the foundation of our family, no matter what phase of life we are at. Here are some ways I am currently working on being a better wife and partner. These will be different for everyone because our lifestyles are all a little different. Please also note, these are things I am working on and fail at often, but like most things I share, I figure putting it out into the world will help me to keep at it.

Tyler is a priority above the kids.
This is not always possible but more often then not, my time and effort goes more into the littles than it does to Tyler. One day it will just be Tyler and I and I want to still know how to have fun just the two of us. This means we need to have fun the two of us often now. We try to chat when Tyler comes home from work and make a once a month date night out.

Put his to do list above my own.
One thing I am pretty selfish with is my time. I often have a running to do list and a few leisure items I want to enjoy when the kids are sleeping. Its easy to keep myself at front of mind when I have opportunities to accomplish a few things but I am learning that sometimes I need to consider Tyler's do list as well. Its important for us to help each other and he always thinks of things that need to be done around the house that I may not think of.

Being slow to anger and less hasty.
During a marriage workshop I was confronted with a harsh reality, I often backtrack and ask for forgiveness after being too quick to anger and act hastily, I am a hasty person. And so I am trying to be slower to anger.

Making whole food cooking a priority.
I am slowly but surely trying to prepare more healthful food choices for my family. This is important for our physical and mental health and the act of sitting together to eat our meals is very important to me as well for building a strong family. This being said, I am learning that eating well requires a big dedication of my time in meal planning and prepping. I need to be selfless in pursuit of raising the most healthy family I can and make food prep a higher priority in my free time.

Giving all control to God and trusting Him for everything.
I am a control freak, I like to control as much as possible. In my marriage I can only control myself and trust God for the rest. Nagging and pestering (which is something I do) will not solve any problems, those are emotions and conversations I need to take to God first.

There it is. What do you think guys? I would love to hear from my friends who have been married for years, please share your wisdom. And if you are working on some personal improvement if your marriage, I would love to know what you are focusing on too.

xoxo
Audrey