Being away from your Loved One

One of the hardest tests of any marriage is spending time away from your spouse. Spending time away from your loved one is a test that a marriage will go through, whether the trip is for business or pleasure you could be spending anywhere from a day or a weekend to months or years away from your wife. Thus, staying in touch with your spouse becomes one of the key things that everyone must do.

How to Keep in Touch

With advancing technologies it has become significantly easier to keep in touch. There are many ways to keep in touch with your spouse now.
– Phone: Call your spouse using the traditional method of a phone. Long distance charges may add up. Use a calling card
– Online: In the online world you can communicate with your spouse through many methods. Some of which require paying while others are free. The key items to purchase are a headset (headphones and microphone) and a webcam. A desktop or laptop computer should already be present at both parties locations.
– Online programs:
– Free: MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype
– Online to Phone Programs: These usually cost money however the added benefit is being able to call from an online program to a landline or mobile phone.
– MagicJack, Skype Premium
– Text Messaging/Blackberry Messenger/Chat
– Text Messaging is a great way of keeping in touch with your spouse throughout the day.
– Most smartphones nowadays come with handy chat features. One can use Blackberry Messenger, Gchat or even Yahoo chat to keep in touch with their spouse throughout the day.

Time
The most important factor when spending time away from your spouse is to consider how much dedicated time you will save for them on your trip. Between finding a place to eat, shopping, jet lag and other problems you must find time to speak to your spouse. Dedicated time means time without distraction, without doing work, without speaking with other people. Dedicate at least 1 hour to speak to your spouse. This time will give you enough time to talk to your spouse, address problems, talk to your kids and spend quality time with your spouse.

What To Do
When being away from your spouse try to be more romantic with words. Use words that you know will mean a lot to your spouse. Words such as love, like, beautiful, handsome amongst others will help get that message across. Your spouse will appreciate the subtle messages that you send.

Sometimes a text message or chat message can work wonders. A simple, ‘I am missing you,’ or ‘I am thinking of you’ can be very effective and can get your message across.

Remember being away from your spouse can take a toll on your relationship. When being away from your spouse whether it is for a business trip or other reasons try to communicate as much as possible with them. This will keep your relationship alive inshaAllah!

Allah says in the Quran in Surat Ar-Rum:

And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquillity in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought. (Rum: 21)

In the end Allah subhana wa ta’alaa has brought you together to have tranquility in your relationship and your lives. Using the technology available today and communicating with your spouse will play a big part in creating and maintaining that tranquility.