Marriage Insights - Preparing For Marriage

Quotes on “Preparing for Marriage”

Many will instruct you to “follow your heart.” This advice can lead to a heartbreaking situation. One emotional student was heard to exclaim, “I know I’ve met the right girl … I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, and I’m flunking all my tests!” Sounds like a case of the flu to me. Let me suggest, instead of asking, “Am I in love?” ask, “Is my love mature enough to produce a fulfilled love, marriage, and sex relationship?” I prefer to evaluate love in terms of maturity because I believe we are always “in love.”

… The issue isn’t whether or not you are in love. The real question remains, “Is my love mature enough to lead to a commitment and a lasting relationship?” (Josh McDowell, The Secret of Loving)

• If you have serious doubts and get married anyway, the odds are that you’ll be sorry. Don’t let your desire to get married overpower those doubts. (From the book “Wonderful Marriage” by Lilo and Gerard Leeds)

• There’s an old saying, “Marriage is a school in which the pupil learns too late.” If we aren’t ready for marriage or if we choose a poor marriage partner, this can be very true. Yet for most people, it doesn’t have to be. To be sure that it isn’t, we need to do three things. First, we need to be prepared to be a reasonably mature, emotionally healthy, and spiritually committed spouse. Second, we need to select a mate who is ready to be a reasonably mature, emotionally healthy, and spiritually committed spouse. And third, we need to be willing to face our needs to grow and become better people and well-adjusted marriage partners. (Dr. Clyde Narramore, from the article: A Pre-Marriage Checklist)

• One of the chief reasons so many marriages fail is that the functions of a date and mate differ radically: that of a date is to be charming; that of a mate is to be responsible; and, unfortunately, the most charming individuals are not necessarily the most responsible, while the most responsible are just as often deficient in charm. (Sydney Harris)

• Do opposites attract? Yes, they do. The problem with that is, is that opposites ATTRACT. What will drive you crazy about your mate are the things that attracted you to them at the outset, and you have been careful of that. I’ll make this statement: to the degree that you and your future mate are socially opposite, you had better balance it out with an equal amount of flexibility and holiness. Couples that are real, real close in everything that they like, if they don’t watch it, they can get bored in life because it’s easy just to go together.

If you’re really at a disparity, that’s okay. But if you’ve got 30 pounds of difference, there had better be 30 pounds of flexibility. If you’ve got 100 pounds of difference with you and your mate, there had better be 100 pounds of holiness and godliness with each other. You’ve got to be able to enjoy the same things.  (Tommy Nelson, from Familylife.com broadcast:Unity -Part 2 of 2)

• If a couple find out before marriage how flimsy the basis of their love is, they are fortunate.(Marriage specialist Sylvanus Duvall, Before You Marry)

• No other human relationship can approach the potential for intimacy and oneness than can be found within the context of a marriage commitment. And yet no other relationship can bring with it as many adjustments, difficulties and even hurts. There’s no way you can avoid these difficulties; each couple’s journey is unique. But there is much you can do to prepare for that journey. An engagement is not just a time of preparation for a wedding, but also preparation for a marriage. (Dennis Rainey, Preparing for Marriage)