6 Easy Ways to Show Your Spouse Affection When You Don’t Feel Like It

Marriage is a vow to remain by one another’s side for higher and worse. While we understand it’s our job to indicate our spouse the love of God, it is not at all times easy to try this! We each face ups and downs that affect our mood, demeanor, and availability. When life is hard for our partners, the stress they’re experiencing could make them harder to be around. The reflex we must avoid is retreating and avoiding being with them.

The same is true for ourselves; as we navigate seasons of burnout, fatigue, and more, our motivation to like our partner well with grace and affection can wane. This is normal in marriage. We all face seasons where we aren’t as close as we would prefer to be. What’s essential is that we recognize these times and do our greatest to intentionally bridge the gap you’ve got seen growing between you.

The urgent things around us can so easily suck up all our effort, time, and emotional bandwidth. In marriage, the struggle is to be intentional about selecting to like and see one another in every session. This requires loads of grace, a lot humility, and loads of forgiveness. Thankfully, with God’s help, we will stay in love and remain affectionate towards one another. He is our strength even once we feel weak.