Introduction
The most important ingredient for a healthy relationship is unwavering love. Love can be described as a feeling of cherishing and holding each other dearly and unconditionally. The prayer for everyone who is in, or intends to get into a relationship is that the relationship will be healthy and loving for as long as it takes. However, whether relationship will be healthy depends on the mutual commitment of the partners in building and maintaining the bond between them through loyalty, acceptance, communication, and appreciation among others. In building a healthy loving relationship, four key behavioral qualities must be entrenched; respect, trust, honest and caring.
Caring
Is essential as it shows concern for the other person’s wellbeing. It involves empathy and accommodation while appreciating the other person’s feelings and offering a shoulder to lean on. According to Wlliams (2006) care involves feeling that the happiness of the other person is more important than your own happiness. Offering support to the other partner at all times and in all endeavors enhances the bonding and creates a path for commitment of either partner in his/her role in the relationship. A healthy loving relationship depends on how well the couple is able to resolve conflicts as they arise in which case reflective listening is paramount. Identifying and solving, and expressing differences caringly is important to the couple’s wellbeing (Schaeffer 1997).
Trust
Is a feeling of confidence and faith with the other half that he/she can be relied upon without reservations. This means that, both partners should be committed to earning trust by appreciating each other and being morally upright with utmost value and dignity thus creating a sense of security to each other. In addition, spending time together and being consistent with amount of time spent together builds trust. For trust to prevail, their must be agreement between the partners which gives a sense of moral self integrity and dedication to either partner. Where agreement fails or breaks down, the relationship suffers from eroded trust and breakdown in communication, the remedy of which is to amend or institute a new agreement as soon as possible before the damage becomes worse.
Honesty
Keeps the relationship intact as, apart from building trust, it ensures both partners engage in truth and meaningful communication with no intent to hurt each other whatsoever. Being honest with oneself also helps to be honest to the other partner. Even where problems are available, admitting their existence means being honest, which in turn acts as a step towards seeking solution. Openness with undistorted information whether negative or not, provided it is the truth is important to keep the relationship intact. Withholding the truth may become disastrous in future in case the truth is revealed in one way or another.
Respect
For each other tends to ensure that the values and feelings of either partner are appreciated and not compromised. This means that, both partners value, appreciate and understand each other and in the process tend to accommodate each other. Communication plays a vital role in establishing respect in that, the tone and level of command used influences the level of respect portrayed. Listening as twice as you speak and understanding other person’s boundaries helps to create respect and ignite the mutual bonding in the relationship.
In conclusion, the path to a healthy loving relationship is commitment by both partners to their roles and embodiment of love that is unconditional. In addition upholding the tenets of care, honesty trust and respect, not only shows willingness to foster love, but also enhances connectivity between partners.
Work Cited
Benokraitis, Nijole Vaicaitis. Marriages and families: changes, choices, and constraints. 2nd Edition, 1996. NJ: Prentice Hall.
Schaeffer, Brenda. Is It Love or Is It Addiction. 2nd Edition, 1997. MN: Hazelden Publishing.
Williams, Richard N. “Loving and Caring for Each Other”. Loving and Caring for Each Other. 2006. Web.