A marriage with scheduled sex and weekly date nights is definitely helpful for a couple buried in their careers, maintaining a home and keeping up with the ever growing list of things to do for the kids, but couples would do their marriages well by reviving romance.

We’ve bought into this notion hook, line and sinker. We’re told to do the things that make us happy, and this definitely has merit when contemplating the jobs we should take or deciding which establishments to patron, and even which dating relationships to pursue. But we must be weary of allowing this mantra to follow us into marriage.

There’s never just one winner of an argument in marriage—only two losers. It’s either win-win or lose-lose, there’s no other option. So trying to prove your innocence or correctness at the expense of your spouse's guilt and error is a self-inflicting wound. Couples come out of an disagreement/argument either stronger or weaker, but never the same.

They say people remember 90% of the details of their first kiss. This is because kissing is a big deal, or at least it should be. But, too often, kissing our spouses over time can become more about routine and less about passion. 

When we’re toeing the middle-line, waiting for our spouses to shore up their end, we're sending a message of conditional love; and this equity protest damages intimacy and trust.

Marrying "the one" doesn't put a marriage on autopilot to a life of happiness. That tingle fades. Great marriages are built through expressing care and love frequently in small ways.