Jump Start Your Marriage (4 page)

             
Maintaining a healthy marriage takes work, as does keeping yourself attractive to your spouse. If you truly love your husband or wife and want to meet his or her needs, then you will want to keep yourself as attractive as you possibly can. You will want to meet your spouse’s needs.

             
If you don’t care about keeping yourself attractive and meeting your spouse’s needs, then someone else might. And, when that happens, don’t be surprised when Paul’s warning comes true and the devil has established a foothold in your home and your life. Don’t get mad at God if that happens. You will have only yourself to blame.

             
If you want to turn your marriage around, invest in your health and work on being attractive and appealing to your spouse once again.

The preceding steps will help jump-start your marriage. But your marriage may need more than that. A jump start gets you up and running a little, but it’s not necessarily a long-term solution. In fact, it rarely is. To keep the car analogy going, your marriage may need an engine overhaul. At the least, it needs to be regularly re-fueled and it will need periodic tune-ups.

For this reason, don’t look at this e-book as the end-all, be-all. It’s merely a resource to help you with a few quick tips to get you up-and-running toward a more long-term solution.

What should your next steps
be? Well, first, you need to start consistently applying the previous five steps outlined in this e-book. Don’t close this e-book and then dismiss what’s inside without first truly applying its contents. Actually, do what the e-book says before you conclude it doesn’t work. That could be said for just about any book or e-book.

Prayer must be a part of your daily action plan. I’ve referred to prayer in a couple of the previous steps, and want to make clear that this entire action guide (this whole e-book) should be bathed in prayer. Pray without ceasing.

If your marriage is in serious disrepair, seek counseling.

Recommended Reading

The following books were helpful as I composed this
eBook
. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of each:


       
Carnegie, Dale.
How to Win Friends And Influence People
.  Multiple editions.


       
Chapman, Gary.
The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts
. Northfield Publishing, 2010


       
Harley, Willard F.
His Needs Her Needs: Building an Affair-Proof Marriage
. Grand Rapids: Fleming-Revell, 2001


       
Maxwell, John.
Winning With People
. Thomas Nelson, 2007


       
Tracy, Brian.
 
Goals! How to Get Everything You Want - Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible
. San Francisco: Berrett-Kohler, 2010