Counsels on Relationships

Counsel #4 — Compliment Your Spouse

Picture: Counsel #4 — Compliment your spouse CR 91.1

Genuinely compliment your spouse every day, privately and publicly. Don’t take the little or big things that they do for granted. Compliment them on their appearance, their accomplishments, their intelligence, their mental and emotional fortitude and encouragement, and their self-control when provoked. Thank them for their cooking, for playing with the kids, for shoveling the snow from the walk.^[86] Be on the look-out for special things your spouse does for you or the family and let them know in positive ways that you noticed and are grateful.^[87] CR 91.2

A little appreciation goes a long way! CR 91.3

“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV CR 91.4

“Let each give love rather than exact it. Cultivate that which is noblest in yourselves, and be quick to recognize the good qualities in each other. The consciousness of being appreciated is a wonderful stimulus and satisfaction. Sympathy and respect encourage the striving after excellence, and love itself increases as it stimulates to nobler aims.” Ellen White in The Adventist Home, p. 107 CR 91.5

Reflect: Would your spouse say you often give them genuine compliments and appreciation? CR 91.6