I once read a quote that said, "A relationship without trust is like a car with 4 flats...you can be in it but you can't go anywhere." I believe this to be a true observation. If you are going to have a successful marriage, you have to protect the trust in the marriage at all costs.
When I say "trust" I am not only talking about questionable behavior with the opposite sex. That may be the most obvious area of concern when it comes to trust, but for a lot of people it is not the biggest area of concern. Please do not cause your partner to lose trust in you behind another person. But even more important is that you do not cause your partner to stop trusting you with their heart. 😯
Intimate relationships are intimate because of the vulnerability and transparency between you. When your partner stops trusting you with their heart, the first thing that is lost is the connection. Connection and intimacy (when I talk about them) are one and the same. Once they cannot trust you with their heart, the intimacy suffers. (Make sure you read tomorrow's tip on Connection).
Most people know that trust is very important. But most people do not make 'keeping the trust' a primary focus. The reason I am encouraging you to protect the trust between you "at all costs" is because it can cause a domino effect.
THE DOMINO EFFECT
Did you know that when dominoes are lined up, if you knock over the first domino it has the energy behind it to knock over a domino twice its size? For example, a 1" domino can knock over a 2" domino, a 2" domino can knock over a 4" domino, as so on. After the first domino falls, the energy behind each domino increases exponentially.
Let's say divorce is a 300 foot domino, and distrust is a 1 inch domino. Distrust will not cause a marriage to fail immediately. But if you are not protecting the trust and you knock over than first domino without immediately addressing it, you could be crushed by the energy (negative energy) that subsequent dominoes are producing, making it extremely difficult and costly to stop the inevitable.
Trust is earned by the drop but lost by the buckets.
So. Protect the trust. How? 🤔 Keep your word. Practice consistency. Do not lie. Do not be disrespectful. Do not be impatient. Do not be controlling. Listen more, talk less. Seek understanding. Be genuinely interested in the life of your spouse. All of these could knock over that first domino. If you are not being intentional, by the time you realize the domino effect has started, your marriage could be in "The Sunken Place." 🫣