I want to start with a quote from Joseph F. Smith,
“Parents... should love and respect each other, and treat each other with respectful decorum and kindly regard, all the time. The husband should treat his wife with the utmost courtesy and respect. The husband should never insult her; he should never speak slightly of her, but should always hold her in the highest esteem in the home, in the presence of their children... The wife, also, should treat the husband with the greatest respect and courtesy. Her words to him should not be keen and cutting and sarcastic. She should not pass slurs or insinuations at him... Then it will be easy for the parents to instill into the hearts of their children not only love for their fathers and their mothers, not only respect and courtesy towards their parents, but love and courtesy and deference between the children at home” (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, pp. 283–284).
This quote is packed with such amazing and useful insight. Through this quote I learn better how to have harmony in my marriage and in my home. When husbands and wives refuse to talk to and about each other in an unkind and degrading manner the they cost more love for one another. Teaching ourselves as spouses to speak kindly, respectfully, and upliftingky about our spouse will help us to develop greater love, respect and gratitude for our spouse.
Along with this, if we speak only with kindness in our homes and in our relationships this sets an example and a pattern for our children to follow. They learn from a young age to speak with loving respect towards their parents as well as their siblings. This will be a pattern for their lives and hopefully for their future marriages.
These habits bring peace and harmony into the home, and begin to make the home feel like a heaven on earth. A sanctuary from the storms of the world.
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