7 Tips to Give Your Marriage the Gift of Thankfulness

“God gave you the gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you”? – William A. Ward

I said “thank you” to the barista girl who handed me my Mocha Latte through the drive-thru window. I said “thank you” to the friend who stopped me at church to compliment my new ‘do. I said “thank you” to the young man at the checkout who told me to “have a nice day”. I said “thank you” to the stranger who held the door.

Maybe you do use a good number of those 86,400 seconds each day to say “thank you”.

But, when is that last time you said it to your spouse?

I am constantly reminding my boys to say “please” and “thank you”, but I find I so often forget to use those same words each day with my husband. “Hottie, can you get a gallon of milk out of the fridge in the garage?”

(Yes, we call each other ‘Hottie’. It is our own ‘honey’, started in our dating years. I still plan to call him “Hottie” when he’s 80.)

“Can you set the table…grab that baby…let the dogs out…change over the laundry…take out the garbage…call your mother to let her know about the birthday party…fix that towel hanger in the bathroom again…discipline that child…rub this knot out of my shoulder…critique this blog post………………………….”

In the dailiness of all of that, I often forget to let my man know how much I appreciate the things he does.

Most often, I am grateful. I feel the ‘thank you’, but forget to say the ‘thank you’.

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William A. Ward

Let’s all decide to GIVE our marriages the gift of thankfulness!! Here are 7 tips on how….

1. Where’s your phone? Probably handy, right? Grab it now. Yes. Right now. Send your spouse a text saying “thank you” for something they’ve done today that you forgot to say “thank you” for.

2. Next time you see your “hottie”, put your arms around them, look them in the eye and say “thank you”. And when they say “For what?”, have a good answer.

3. If you are finding it hard to think of something to say “thank you” for, look at the ordinary. Appreciate the daily things. Thank you for going to work. Thank you for being my wife. Thank you for making dinner night after night.

4. “Thank you, but….” is not thankfulness. It is criticism. It doesn’t count.

5. Create a habit of sharing thankfulness with each other. Our is a “Thank You for…” board that I made from simple materials (instructions here) that hangs by our toothbrushes in the bathroom with a dry erase marker. It is a daily reminder to us to share our gratitude with one another.

6. In between the “Pass the turkey” and “Want some pie?”, say something at your Thanksgiving Day meal that let’s everyone at the table know how grateful you are for your spouse. Yes, I’m saying you should brag about them…and make sure they hear it too.

7. Thank God for one another when you pray together. Your spouse is a divine provision that God has placed in your life. Bless your spouse’s heart with all the ways God is using them in your life to make you more of who He wants you to be.