Letters of Forgiveness Imagine that every morning after you got dressed you put a stuffed envelope in your back pocket. You consciously open the drawer to your nightstand and grab a worn letter inside an envelope, fold it in half, and put it inside the back pocket of your jeans. That might seem like a small little difference to your normal routine, because I don’t know anyone who does this, haha.

With it being the beginning of the month, this is the perfect time to ask yourself this #freshfridays question! Maybe it’s making an extra effort for date nights, maybe it’s doing something unexpected for them, or maybe it’s keeping a more positive atmosphere in your conversations. The best thing about these questions is that the possibilities of what you can do are ENDLESS!

I know it can be very hard to let little things go, or to let big things go. Overcoming your variety of feelings, is not easy. Forgiveness is not easy! Forgetting is not easy. I know that it’s easier to sing it than to do it (sorry not sorry if the song got stuck in your head lol) but once you do let it go, you also have let go of resentment and can move forward with a clearer heart and mind.

In my previous post, I talked about not holding onto mistakes you have made, or mistakes your spouse has made – Basically letting go of grudges you have with yourself or your spouse. Since avoiding grudges is a topic that seems to have many webs stemming from it, I wanted to elaborate on one idea right now that can be very helpful in moving forward from mistakes made in marriage: Looking for the good in the bad.

This #freshfridays question gives you SEVEN DAYS to find a good time to do something for your spouse or for your marriage in general! I’m going to give my husband more head/scalp massages this week because he has really liked those lately. I’ve noticed it helps him to de-stress from work and even go to sleep more easily. :) Think about what you could do and commit to do it!

FACT: We have all made mistakes in marriage, whether they be big or small. I know when I make mistakes in my marriage I tend to be hard on myself for it, especially if it’s something I am continually working on but don’t seem to be getting better at quite yet. The feeling lasts for a few days while I still feel bad for whatever I did or said, and as I consider ways to become better.

We used to have a cute little tradition that we started when we were dating called, “Stoplight Kisses.” When we would drive together and approach a long stoplight, we would lean over and kiss each other :) Sometimes they were hurried kisses, and sometimes one of us kept our eyes open in case the light turned green, haha. But we enjoyed these little moments. Any excuse to kiss right?! Over the past three years, I’m sorry to say we haven’t kept up with that tradition!

Last year I wrote a series of posts on how social media can get the best of us and how it can affect our marriages. I now want to discuss another aspect of social media that can affect our marriages. THINK ABOUT YOUR SOCIAL CONNECTIONS I didn’t think there was a problem having tons of friends when I first started facebook back in high school. It was neat to be able to connect, but then I realized how it can make me feel envious or inadequate when I spend a lot of time on it and am involved in other people’s lives so much.

I’ve been down lately about some things and I’m realizing that I feel a little better when I do little things for my husband. He has been patient and encouraging, so this weekend I’m going to try forgetting about myself and do more things for him :) What will you do this weekend to keep your marriage fresh?

Hi. We are married and we both wear pants. That sounded funny huh? Well I’m just making fun of the stupid saying “Who wears the pants in your relationship?” because I hate it. Last time I checked we both wear pants, except on Sundays when I’m usually in skirt or dress ;) But seriously, though! I know it’s said in a funny and teasing way, almost sarcastically. However, remember, the thing about sarcasm is that there seems to be a little truth beyond its intentions.

My husband and I have both mentioned in posts how much we enjoy giving and receiving love notes from each other. I really think there’s an awesome power that comes with love notes. Having a physical copy of how your spouse feels about you is something you can refer to in years to come, which makes it more special. Trevor and I used to write more to each other while we were dating, and I think it’s because we lived an hour away from each other.

This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. Which means Freshly Married can make a small commission on items you buy through these links. This is one of my favorite quotes, by one of my favorite people who ever lived. He says this quote above in his book, “Standing For Something: 10 neglected virtues that will heal our hearts and homes.” and I absolutely LOVE this book. I first read it about six years ago, and I still remember amazing points he brought up about society and families, and I find myself referring back to reading pieces often.

This is a humbling reminder on marriage that I truly appreciate. When we look at our spouses, we should view them with a sense of compassion, recognizing that they have weaknesses just like you do. And then I hope that compassion turns into excitement thinking about how great your marriage can be; how it can improve and strengthen. Your spouse has potential, your marriage has potential.

This Valentine’s Day is going to be a little more low-key for us and we like it that way right now. :) However, low-key doesn’t mean we aren’t doing anything new or special! Because we want to continue keeping our marriage fresh, right?! We plan to do that by going back to our 90’s childhood and play on our Nintendo 64!! Trevor has been playing Super Smash Brothers on the 64 with some of his friends and he realized how much he truly missed playing it!

In a presentation about having a more connected marriage, one of my UVU professors shared this cute story about something he does in his marriage and I thought it was inspiring to share! The Dot above the Door Handle One night when he came home from work, his wife mentioned to him that she felt like she wasn’t being noticed, like the things she did in her day weren’t being appreciated as much.

And by good things, I don’t just mean that it opens the opportunity for sex! haha. I think that by ending your night with a kiss sets you up for good feelings before you go to sleep. Good feelings or bad feelings can be the difference between staying up all night or having a beautiful sleep! Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying that if you don’t kiss your spouse goodnight that you are a terrible spouse, or that you’ll have bad feelings before you fall asleep!

For this giveaway, I asked you to tell us how you keep your marriage fresh, along with reposting a freshly married quote from our insta. I truly loved reading the responses from those who participated! A response that was similar among multiple entries was that they try to keep each other a priority among new situations like having babies. Other responses were back to the simple basics: making dinner together, having weekly date nights, dancing in the kitchen, and other quality time activities :) I just really liked hearing these responses because not only do they inspire my own marriage, but those who saw your posts were also inspired!

That title sounds funny but you’ll get it when you’re through with this post. This past week I have been so grateful for Trevor’s support. I’ve been feeling down, stressed, and very emotional from some new medical developments in my life recently, and he has been there in ways I needed and also didn’t realize I needed. He reminded me how important support is between a marriage because it’s hard to receive that much support elsewhere.

Do you guys know Stuart Edge? My husband and I just recently found his uplifting videos on youtube and every time I watch them I think, “How cool is it that he can just give away money in really neat ways and make people happy?! I wish I could do that!” Well I’m definitely not made of money but I genuinely love doing nice things for people, especially if it truly does help them in some way.

My #freshfridays question is to help those of us who haven’t planned out their Valentine’s Day yet ;) (me being one of them!) Since the #monthoflove is next weekend, I want to encourage you to do something a little different. Whether it’s spent inside or out, mixing it up helps freshen your romance! What are your plans??