In successful marriages, couples are intimate, loving companions who truly understand and thoughtfully support each other. However, the busyness of daily life can sometimes unintentionally weaken your connection. This course provides married couples with practical tools to create new patterns that strengthen friendship, love, and service in their relationship. Premarital couples are also welcome.
You’ll learn to engage in meaningful activities that help shape the culture of your marriage, enhancing unity and fostering mutual service to each other, your families, and others. By deepening your friendship and commitment, you’ll sustain the strong bond you’ve built, keeping it alive through thoughtful words and actions. Together, you’ll communicate, share joy, and create lasting memories. Every day offers new opportunities to serve each other’s needs, dreams, and aspirations, keeping your marriage strong, joyful, and fulfilling.
Note: You will complete your self-directed learning study of each Unit as best as you can before your group meetings. Some couples set aside evening or weekend time. Other couples find if they spend 15 minutes a day working on their marriage that they make excellent progress. Experiment, learn, and do what works best for you. You won’t lose access to the course at the end, so you can continue to study at the pace that works for you as needed.
Strengthening Your Learning: You are in charge of your own learning, and we are here to accompany you. We invite you to turn to your marriage partner to do the learning activities throughout this course. You may also find it very helpful to work with another couple on studying the materials and carrying out activities. Alternatively, a close friend may be able to help you with your learning. You may find it beneficial to choose someone consistent to work with, or you may find you learn more by doing activities with a variety of people. It may also assist you to be in communication with your facilitators and your fellow participants through Discussions as well. Arrange what works best for you. Welcome to this exciting journey of learning!
Course Dates: January 10-31, 2026
The course runs on Saturdays, 2-4 p.m. US Eastern Time, with facilitated meetings occurring weekly at this time throughout the course.
Note: Time Zone conversions can be done using one of these tools:
Appreciate the quality of your friendship and see ways to expand the friendship you have between you.
Understand ways to express love and respect that increase a healthy unity between you.
Thoughtfully be of service to one another and balance service inside and outside your home.
This course contains quotations from many science-based and spiritual sources. It is not affiliated with any particular faith nor sponsored by any religious institution. Some quotations are from the Baha'i Faith (bahai.org). This course is part of an effort to fulfill quotations like this one: “A new conception of family begins with a new conception of marriage. Bahá’u’lláh observes that marriage is not only ‘the key to the perpetuation of life for the peoples of the world’, but ‘the inscrutable instrument for the fulfilment of their destiny.’ (Universal House of Justice, March 19, 2025, quoting Bahá’u’lláh in “To Set the World in Order: Building and Preserving Strong Marriages, #1)
Please Introduce Yourself!
Course Orientation
FREE PREVIEWCourse Communication Guidelines
Course Schedule/Group Meetings Zoom Link
Frequently Asked Questions
Change Notes for the Course
Elements of the Course Opening Meeting
Unit 1: Goals, Learning Content, Activities, Questions
FREE PREVIEWUnit 1: Build Understanding - Love Map Activity (PDF)
Unit 1: Happiness, Joy, Laughter, and Humor Quotations (PDF)
Unit 1: Activity Ideas for Couples (PDF)
Unit 2: Goals, Learning Content, Activities, Questions
Unit 2: Love and Love in Marriage Quotations (PDF)
Unit 3: Goals, Learning Content, Activities, Questions
Encouragement in Relationships and Marriage (PDF)
Some Helpful Resources
Compilation: To Set the World in Order--Building and Preserving Strong Marriages
Family Life & Marriage - Universal House of Justice - March 19, 2025
FREE PREVIEWCompilation: Character, Courtship, Partner Selection (PDF); from Baha'i World Centre
Courses of the Ruhi Institute (Book 12.1 on The Institution of Marriage)
Marriage Transformation - Products/Services
FREE PREVIEWProfessionals-Bahais-August 17, 2025
We welcome everyone to this course who wishes to participate. This course invites you to commit time, effort, and money. We hope you can afford the cost of the course, as that helps cover the cost of the course platform and a small amount to the facilitators for their service. However, we do not want financial difficulties to prevent registration. If you or your partner cannot afford part or all of the fee, there are coupon codes available for financial aid. Please contact Susanne Alexander, course administrator, at [email protected] with specifics of how much you can afford or the discount you need. We are happy to help and look forward to welcoming you to this relationship-enriching course!
