Communication in Marriage Prepares you for all of Life’s Events—a marriage tip for managing the unthinkable.

In the marriage seminars and at the couple retreats I hold for married couples, I stress the importance of communication in marriage as a way of making a marriage more successful and daily life better. However, some events are not every-day events; some are catastrophic! When you pay attention to the business side of marriage, even when the worst thing you can imagine happens to your family –even when you are no longer there--you can have the tools in place to reduce disruption and confusion.

Here’s a lesson out of Africa. It’s May of 2010, and a Dutch family goes on their dream safari to Africa. On the way home, the plane crashes, killing the mother, father, and one son. The only survivor is their 9-year-old son.

Who is he? Where is he from? Is he allergic to anything? What meds does he take? Finally, he is identified, and his aunt and uncle drop what they are doing and rush from Holland to Liberia. But questions abound: Who has health insurance? What life insurance was there? Who has access to bank accounts?

Lesson learned: Through sound practice of the business side of marriage, using structured communication, even such an extreme event can be anticipated and planned. So here’s a tip for your successful marriage—communicate with your marriage partner and make sure he or she knows where important information is kept and that, in the event both of you are incapacitated, someone else can easily locate that information. It’s part of being in a successful marriage to plan for any event—even the worst you can imagine.