Nurturing Love and Friendship in Marriage

• Husbands and wives need to nurture their love for one another.

Q" “Love is like a flower, and, like the body, it needs constant feeding. The mortal body would soon be emaciated and die if there were not frequent feedings. The tender flower would wither and die without food and water. And so love, also, cannot be expected to last forever unless it is continually fed with portions of love, the manifestation of esteem and admiration, the expressions of gratitude, and the consideration of unselfishness” (“Oneness in Marriage,” Ensign, Mar. 1977, 5). - President Spencer W. Kimball, the 12th President of the Church

• Expressions of affection and kindness keep love and friendship alive in marriage.

Q? What are some “little things” that can keep love and friendship alive in marriage

• Proper intimacy in marriage is an expression of love.

Q" : “Within the enduring covenant of marriage, the Lord permits husband and wife the expression of the sacred procreative powers in all their loveliness and beauty within the bounds He has set. One purpose of this private, sacred, intimate experience is to provide the physical bodies for the spirits Father in Heaven wants to experience mortality. Another reason for these powerful and beautiful feelings of love is to bind husband and wife together in loyalty, fidelity, consideration of each other, and common purpose” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1994, 50; or Ensign, Nov. 1994, 38).

Q" : “Tenderness and respect—never selfishness—must be the guiding principles in the intimate relationship between husband and wife. Each partner must be considerate and sensitive to the other’s needs and desires. Any domineering, indecent, or uncontrolled behavior in the intimate relationship between husband and wife is condemned by the Lord” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1994, 68; or Ensign, Nov. 1994, 51).

Read Exodus 20:14, 17

• Married couples should strive to have charity, the pure love of Christ.

Read John 13:34–35 Ephesians 5:25 Moroni 7:45–48

Developing Unity in Marriage

• The Lord has commanded husbands and wives to be one.

Q? What does it mean for a husband and wife to be one?

Q" At the creation of man and woman, unity for them in marriage was not given as hope; it was a command! ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh’ (Genesis 2:24). Our Heavenly Father wants our hearts to be knit together. That union in love is not simply an ideal. It is a necessity”

• Husbands and Wives should value eachother as equal partners

Q? Why must husbands and wives value one another as equal partners to be one?

Q? What are some things husbands and wives do when they value each other as equal partners?

Q" “As a husband and worthy priesthood bearer, you will want to emulate the example of the Savior, whose priesthood you hold. You will make giving of self to wife and children a primary focus of your life." Boyd K Packer

• Husbands and Wives should allow their individual characteristics and abilities to complete one another

Read 1 Corinthians 11:11

Q" “In the Lord’s plan, it takes two—a man and a woman—to form a whole. … For the greatest happiness and productivity in life, both husband and wife are needed. Their efforts interlock and are complementary. Each has individual traits that best fit the role the Lord has defined for happiness as a man or woman. When used as the Lord intends, those capacities allow a married couple to think, act, and rejoice as one—to face challenges together and overcome them as one, to grow in love and understanding, and through temple ordinances to be bound together as one whole, eternally. That is the plan."

Q? In what ways might the results be different when couples try to “get used to each other” rather than “constantly try to change each other”?

• Husbands and Wives must be loyal to one another.

Q? What does the word loyal mean to you?

Read Doctrine and Covenants 42:22

Q? What does it mean to cleave to a husband or wife and none else?

Q" “The words none else eliminate everyone and everything. The spouse then becomes preeminent in the life of the husband or wife, and neither social life nor occupational life nor political life nor any other interest nor person nor thing shall ever take precedence over the companion spouse” (Faith Precedes the Miracle [1972])