Shopping for anniversary gifts is like looking for shoes for a friend. You may think the style of the shoe looks fine and fits you, but it may not be what your friend would wear to a dance. So what are the best gifts to help a married couple celebrate a wedding anniversary?

Let's face it. Being happily married for any length of time is an accomplishment. We are living in difficult times when the beauty of marriage seems to be losing its appeal. Newspapers and magazines, TV news and talk radio show example after example of marriages and fidelity ending up in affairs, cheating and unhappiness. When a husband or wife reads or hears these messages, it is easy to get discouraged or even doubt one another.

Sociologists like those at the National Marriage Project of Rutgers University say that 40-50% of first marriages end up in separation, marriage break ups and divorce. Celebrating a married couples' faithfulness to each other is important for them and for their family.

What Was He Thinking? Why Didn't She Change Her Thoughts?
If you watch TV or read the newspapers, it is easy to learn of a long-time married couple that breaks up, or the husband has an affair, or irreconcilable differences. It happens to politicians, celebrities and even family members. You might ask, "Why?" or "How Could They?" Somewhere, somehow, thoughts and beliefs of the husband or wife or both affected how they behaved and what they said or did to each other.

When friends or family members celebrates their wedding anniversary, they show their love for each other. Communicating this love really begins in the mind, when husbands and wives think positive thoughts about their marriage. With the negative influence of modern society, each married couple needs a positive reminder of how to be strong in living out the promises made on their wedding day.

A Marriage Stays Happy with Right Thinking
According to many psychologists, including William James, James Allen and others, our thoughts shape our lives. When we repeat a thought over and over in our minds, it becomes a belief and we accept it as truth. That belief becomes woven into a chain and our beliefs guide our actions.

Now, the thing is, we did not choose every thought that we have. Many of our thoughts came from family and friends. Much of the time, they inherited their thoughts from their families and friends.

An excellent wedding anniversary gift helps married couples believe that their marriage is getting better, that God is there to help them, and that they have the gifts to become and stay best friends for life.

Three Cords of Marriage
An uplifting way to affirm a married couple is to help them believe that God is the third strand, the third cord in their marriage. Think of a rope, braided from cords. The sturdier the cords and the more tightly they are woven together, the stronger the rope is. The question becomes, which makes a better life line: a rope made of fluffy cotton, or a cable braided from steel fibers? Which one would you use to climb the mountain of marriage after celebrating an anniversary?

This is where inspirational anniversary gifts can make a difference for every married couple. A wedding anniversary with positive thoughts, expressed by a poem and in a prayer are very welcome. All you need to do is to find a poem that will help the neutralize negative thoughts of the past and affirm present and future for many more happy wedding anniversaries to come.