Here are some marital lessons today.
Married men live longer than single men so there even are health benefits to being married!  
I know I can credit Jesus and my wife for anything good coming out of me.
 There are great emotional benefits to having a great marriage.  But it’s not instant and it’s not for wimps.  
Coincidentally-  My wife and I will both admit I am still a work in progress!  
I can still be an idiot at times, but the good news is I am not as often as idiot as I used to be.    The old expression is men are idiots.  That may be true (am i the only one!?), but the good news is we don’t have to stay there.  
That is encouraging to me perhaps, but one thing that helps is to share the lessons I learn the hard way.  
Wise men don’t learn from experience.  But they do learn from other’s experiences.
BUT — I have learned. The world says men cannot understand women. The bible says we are to dwell with our wives according to knowledge.   
One offers no hope.  The other one says seek and ye shall find.    
I want to offer hope.  Hope will change the world.    And as I was trying to teach my son — the Buck stops here. 
Often in marriage, you will find, “what we have here is a problem to communicate!”  It can seem like we both speak a different language.  
What do you do?  QUIT? That is what the world says to do.  Don’t quit.  Learn and keep learning and don’t QUIT. 
I have to keep learning that I NEED TO LEARN to communicate with my wife and if I am not meeting her love language we are not connecting.   
Women are really like a rose-  treat them right they bloom- and wrong they wilt.  I have seen so many men whine about their wives and how bad their marriages are and I could have done that- instead I learned most of it was ME and when I worked on ME and worked on loving my wife magically I ended up with a loving and devoted wife and an amazing marriage. 
One thing I didn’t understand was marriage brings out your selfishness- I thought I was ready for ministry when I got married so I blamed my wife for being stubborn and refusing to follow me.   But I was not someone who deserved to be followed!!    
We will be married 15 years this September. 
The fact the first few were not always bliss is my fault.  It is not my wife’s fault.  It is not anyone else’s fault.  
And if it is my fault, there was hope!  Things changed.   And there is hope for you!  The buck stops here!   
Every person is different but there are a few basic love languages we “understand” and have to “speak” and we simply need to learn each others dialects.  That was one big lesson I leaned. 
I have heard them expressed in many ways, but I like simple, so here are simple ways to explain the basic ones.
They are 

1) Words of affirmation (TELL ME)

 2) Acts of service (SHOW me)

3) Physical touch (HOLD ME) 

4) Time and Attention (HEAR ME).

 5) Gifts (GIVE ME)

Learn your spouse’s love language, and start speaking today!
And know that women want LOVE and men want RESPECT and often they will be in a standstill waiting for the other to give what they need.Men learn to LOVE and the respect will come!!
Mike-the-Therapist