Marriage...it's not for you but for the one you married!

Franz Schubert, an Austrian composer, once said, "Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife."

Marriage can be a scary thing. Part of me wants to think the main reason for cohabitation is because people are afraid to make that life-long commitment to another human being. BUT, I know that is only one of the many reasons as to why people cohabit.

Marriage takes a lot of work. I know I'm not married so I probably don't understand completely all the work that is put in to make a marriage a successful one, but I like to think I have a glimpse of it because of what I have learned, what I am learning, and from all the wonderful examples of married folks I have seen around me.

To me, marriage is kind of an awe-inspiring event. Two people come together, because hopefully they love each other, and start a whole new life together. These two people may have two completely different backgrounds, upbringing, and traditions among many other things. A married couple may have to think about who is going to do the dishes, who's going to change the babies diaper, and so on. My point is that there are a lot of decisions that have to be made as well as adjusting to living with a person you have never lived with before (if you didn't cohabitate).

When you throw kids into the mix of things, things can get crazy fast. In class we spent sometime talking about why it is important for husbands and wives to actively involve one another during their whole marriage. They become a unit, a family together. Lately on Facebook there has been this blog floating around about marriage. You can read the blog here. In this particular blog post Seth Smith talks about how marriage isn't for you. To be honest I completely agree. Its about the person you marry. One thing that I have noticed as we have talked about marriage and children in class is that marriage really isn't about you, neither is a family. Its about those you love and care about. That is why you do the things you do, for the most part at least.

In class we talked about how after a child is born marital satisfaction decreases. This happens for a number of reasons: lack of sleep, intimacy, and communication to name a few. However, I believe there are a number of things one can do to help their marital satisfaction increase. I've noticed that communication is a big deal. When you openly communicate with a person your trust with them goes up as well as attachment. I also believe that when you follow "divine patterns, divine things will happen." Take a look at the clip below that dicusses some tips for a happy marriage. What tips are important to you?