Your spouse needs to feel appreciated and wanted just as much as you do. Kindness, gentleness and consideration are all part of showing affection. The love that you need to nurture for your spouse should be unconditional regardless of his or her defects. It is the kind of affection that must be able to endure, perhaps over very difficult times. When your marriage is endangered by conflict, one of the things that will keep you together is the depth of affection you have for each other.
Affection is also a prerequisite for sustained sexual fulfillment in a relationship.
In the initial months after marriage, there is usually a lot to talk about. But once you settle into the routine of everyday life, conversation is not as easy as it was before. Many couples say that they have nothing new to talk about. This only means that they are not making an effort, or are doing so grudgingly. Right from the beginning, make it a point to talk to your spouse about a wide variety of things what you did on a particular day, what you felt about something that happened between the two of you, things that are in the news, common or individual interests, and opinions.