This article discusses one of the ingredients in a marriage that leads to its success, which is love.

Love is by far one of the most important ingredients that binds a married couple together in both times of fair weather and storms.  After all, it is love that brings 2 people together into a marriage in the first place, most of the time.

One measurement of our love for our spouse is the effort we put in, in trying to understand him or her. There are many things we can do to understand our spouse better. We can talk to her family members or close friends to learn more about her likes, dislikes, personality and other information that will be of help in our further understanding of her.

We can also listen attentively to our spouse to understand more of her thoughts, and more of why she behaves in the way she does in certain situations, in addition to learning more about her likes. dislikes, personality and any other information that will help us to understand her better. We can also increase our understanding of our spouse by simply observing her patterns of behavior, and asking her questions about them. This love-driven desire to understand our spouse better will go a long way in helping us to have a successful marriage, as it enables us to appreciate our spouse more, produces in us more tolerance of her shortcomings, and sometimes even arouses our sympathy for her.

Another measurement of our love for our spouse is the extent we will go, in doing or not doing something, for the sake of our spouse. For example, if we are not too concerned about dressing up well, and our wife would rather we do, we will do so for her sake; and if we drink, and our wife would rather we do not, we will not do so for her sake.