Be kind to your spouse. Treat him or her the way you want to be treated, which means being generous on every level. When it comes to complements, don’t hold back. Be generous and let your mate know how wonderful, or smart, or talented, or beautiful, you think he or she is. It’s good for your spouse to hear pride in your voice, to be praised and reassured. The added benefit is that your husband or wife will learn to respond to your generosity, and it will become reciprocal.
Be generous in times of trouble. Everybody makes mistakes, has accidents, messes things up, loses things, and fails sometimes, but offering reassurance is a much better way to handle such situations than criticizing or berating. Shaking your head, belittling, or explaining how your way would have been more appropriate or successful, is not going to make your spouse feel better. Don’t punish for mistakes. You don’t have to make sure your spouse feels bad, he or she already does. Offering comfort, rather than solutions or I-told-you-so like comments, is a far more loving and generous response.
It is also best to share generously with the man or woman you love when it comes to money and material things. You don’t have to purchase extravagant gifts, but make them befitting the occasion as well as person. Your mate for life deserves every bit as much as you do.
Do not give cheap, thoughtless gifts, and then turn around and demand the best when you are the recipient. Do not buy yourself top of the line products while insisting on discount items for your spouse. Controlling, punishing, or creating a sense of inferiority by using money as a weapon is cruel. It makes your spouse feel as if money and material possessions are more important to you than he or she is.
Be generous in word and deed and you will find that kindness returned and multiplied.