One of the most threatening factors to maintaining a distance relationship is being faithful. But what does being faithful mean?  People have feelings and these need to be satisfied by offering the much needed sharing of the feelings.  When the feelings accumulate they overwhelm the person and this is where problems begin.  Sexual desires may be difficult to overcome.  Being faithful simply means abstaining from indulging into other relations either for sexual satisfaction or otherwise when separated from your partner.

It must be appreciated that only few people are able to remain faithful considering the immense feelings they are confronted with.  This substantiates the reason why people resort to cheating and idolatry as an option to share the feelings with other people in the absence of their partners.  However, this problem can be tackled by persevering, enduring and being patient.  A geographically separated relationship does not mean that the partners will never be together again.  It’s just a matter of time and the two are reunited.

Communication is important in enhancing the love bond and every time you communicate with your partner any temptations, obsessions, and desires that can trigger a person’s feelings to indulge in cheating and other uncalled for affairs are drained off.  When you keep a constant communication with your partner, the bond is cemented and one feels guilty of cheating.

The partners should not accept emotions to overwhelm them.  The partners should not think negatively and imagine that their counterparts are cheating or have stopped loving them.  Negative thoughts can pave way for temptations and eventually lead to cheating.  Even if one partner remains quiet, which of course should not be the case, the other counterpart shouldn’t begin to be suspicious of any wrong doing.  The partner who tends to be quiet should be meant to understand that communication is essential for sustainability of their distance relation.

In order to meet the challenges of distance relationships, the partners should travel and join their counterparts in the course of their separation.  Even the simple encounter of meeting and interacting for a few days can make a great difference and help build and cement their togetherness.  When they meet the feelings are renewed and this may take sometime before it dies out. This can sustain one is another period before they are back together.

Spiritual presence is very important where the partners imagine that they are together spiritually whether in dreams or mere imaginations.  The partners should attach the feelings and presence of their counterpart to an object such as a marital ring which they can touch or view and imagine that their partner is right by the side.

One of the aspects to consider when accepting a distance relationship to take place is to establish how long one will be way from the other partner.  Too long durations should be approached carefully.  Breaks for the one partner to meet the other should be arranged for.  Even in circumstances where the partners are separated by issues beyond their control such as a partner serving a sentence in jail should be tackled appropriately with the involvement of the state departments to allow for the separated to meet occasionally in order to share their affections.  Otherwise such separations could easily lead to other problems such as family break ups.

When the time taken is too long the partners may consider moving together to the new locations to avert any break ups.  Similarly, when the separation does not provide time to reunite with the family, the partners may consider traveling together to the new location.  Otherwise their relationship may be in the verge of collapse.

When separated, the partner should accept that the relationship will work.  Nothing should stand between there way to break their relationship, not even the distance.  When you acknowledge that the relationship will persist, this gives you the confidence and courage to move on without any temptations. 

In essence, long distance relationship work and it only requires one to be faithful, trustworthy, persevering and understand the effects it may bring to the affair.   

I am a twenty two year old guy. I detest the fact that I have had to become a statistic supporting the view that long distance relationships don’t work. I spent last year studying in the U.S. as an international student. Typically I met the girl of my dreams, fell in love and thought I was going to live happily ever after. Like everyone else, that has experienced this type of scenario, I returned home to my native land to be greeted with skepticism about my new love.

It was not that my friends or family doubted that I had met someone special. Nor was it that they had any dislike for her. It was simply logical to them that this was nothing more than a holiday romance. It was widely believed that after a couple of weeks apart we would go our separate ways. This was not the case.

You see in the modern world we have opportunities to go anywhere and do anything. The world is constantly changing and evolving, why should we expect to be greeted by our soul-mate right on our doorstep? Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide never will find “the one.” The fact is that if you think you have found something special, distance shouldn’t even be an issue; and it isn’t.

For those who take the decision to “make it work” they do so with obvious good intent. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can speak for myself and the people I know when I say that cheating isn’t an option. You don’t decide to go through a long distance relationship to be with someone you could cheat on. If you could, why would you need to be with them?

Cheating was never a concern during my year apart from my other half. I trusted her, and I still would. Unfortunately other things come into the equation. Things that you don’t think have much of an impact; but they do. The first time that you see your partner again, after so many months apart, is the most amazing feeling in the world. It is almost as if you have been living without a heart for the last few months. In that first moment when you see them again your heart beats like never before. All the feelings come rushing back, and you remember exactly why you were staying in the relationship in the first place…if you had forgotten!

Everything you do together feels like doing it again for the first time. Not because it is awkward, far from it, but just because it has that added spark to it. The good times are great, and they implant strong memories and feelings in the mind of your loved one that should help you pull through your next time apart. Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as this.

As great as the good times are; the bad times are bad too. The smallest of arguments, and they do happen no matter how much you have missed your loved one, will serve only to create concern in your relationship in the future. When you are thousands of miles apart, and times are tough, the minor niggles you had the last time you were together are magnified tenfold to create confusion and concern in an already fragile environment.

The worst thing you can do in any relationship, but even more-so in a long distance relationship, is take your loved one for granted. The moment you start doing this you are doomed. No matter how close you are, or how much you love each other, you can never know exactly what your other half is thinking; especially if you are not with them.

My advice to anyone thinking about trying to make their relationship last, through the distance, is make your time apart as minimal as you can. Long distance relationships can work, but the longer you are apart the more difficult it becomes and the bigger risk you are taking.

So should we even bother entering into a long distance relationship in the first place when, according to what everyone will tell you, they apparently won’t last? My answer is yes. If you care strongly enough for that special someone to be willing to give it that fighting chance, and they feel the same, then there is always a possibility that you will make it through. And if someone cared about you strongly enough to go through it in the first place, those feelings don’t just disappear overnight.

My girlfriend and I had spent eight months apart before we finally fell foul of fate. It is easy to forget why you are in the relationship when times get tough and your other half is not there to help you through it. Unfortunately I had to return home to complete my final year at college, and then work to save money, before I could return to America. My girlfriend was younger than me and also had to finish college, so she could not move to my country either.

It is difficult when you care so much for someone and you just wish you could be with them there and then. But going through the kind of commitment a long distance relationship brings has to count for something, and in the end; that is all that matters. I know that my ex-girlfriend cares for me, and vice-versa, and maybe one day we will be able to be together. If we hadn’t tried the long distance relationship, and shown each other that we cared that much, then we never would have got there anyway.

My verdict: long distance relationship – give it a go, the rewards could be worth it in the end.