Best Advice on Marriage

Marriage is an institution established by God. Marriage was instituted because God thought man should not be alone, but needed a helper. God also instituted marriage because of the need to “multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it.” 

By God’s design, man is expected to leave his parents and be joined to his wife, and be united as ONE. This “living together” of a man and woman having different character, personality, habit, culture and mentality, etc, is not without problems.

More often than not, couples are embroiled in so great a dispute that they find it difficult to reconcile. In the end, they end up in divorce. It is a tragedy of a sort. Tragedy in the sense that no serious man or woman goes into marriage expecting to divorce later.

The desire of any couple is to enjoy marital bliss for a lifetime. The affirmation, “For better for worse... till death do us part,” is the indication of readiness to stay happily together forever. But no sooner had they settled for marital life than they start thinking of divorce because one problem or the other.

In fact, statistics conducted sometime ago show that 7 out of 10 divorces occur within the first three years of marriage.

The Fundamental

Many a divorce occurs not because of any other thing, but because of immaturity on the part of one or both of the parties. Marriage is not a child’s play and it is important that one should be matured before going into it.

Maturity here has little to do with age. Maturity has to do with mental, physical, and spiritual preparedness for marriage. You don’t jump into marriage simply because your friends are getting married. You get married because you are prepared for it. Marriage is for a lifetime and so it is not something you jump into. Marriage is worth preparing for. I may be wrong but my opinion is that if couple takes time to prepare thoroughly for their marriage, they would avert many problems that may threaten to destroy their marriage.

The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule says, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Jesus proposed this rule and lived by it. Hundreds of thousands of books have been written on relationship and marriage. But if you are asked to summarize any or all the books in one sentence, and you use the Golden Rule as your summary, you will discover that it fits with the overall theme of any of the books.

This goes to show the efficacy of the Golden Rule. It works when both partners work it. The advice is here is that both partners should strive to apply both the Golden Rule at all times. The more both partner practice the Golden Rule, the happier they enjoy their marriage.

The Ultimate

 At stated earlier, it is God that established the marriage institution. As such, He alone has the best advice on marriage. One of God’s pieces of advice is the Golden Rule discussed above. You can find God’s other related advice in the Bible His Word. Take the Bible and read it. Make it a habit it regularly. All the pieces of advice work if only you work them. When both partners are sincere and willing to follow God’s advice on marriage, they will enjoy rather than endure their marriage!