Marriage Advice for Engaged Couples
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If you have been involved in a relationship for quite a while, you may be wondering if it is time to move from dating to marriage. Sound marriage advice can be hard to obtain. We now live in a country where half of all marriages end in divorce, so a smart person wants to make sure that he or she is ready before making a lifelong commitment to their partner with marriage. There are a few questions you should ask yourself before making this life altering decision.
A couple involved in a serious relationship and should be seeking more than love advice, they need to be sure that both partners are prepared for a life long commitment. Theres so many sources for this advice including websites, books and counselors. However, I think that the most appropriate place to start is to seek the counsel of your Pastor, Rabbi or appropriate religious leader where you worship.
It is common for many couples to get married because it seems like the right thing to do at the time. Maybe you cant imagine your lives without each other. In the early days of a dating relationship, emotions can be at their peak and the allure of romance makes you think that you are in love. Marriage seems like the appropriate next step, because it seems that you cannot imagine that the wonderful feelings you have for your partner will ever end.
To best prepare for marriage, its important to seek some kind of pre-marriage advice. A pre-marriage retreat is a fantastic way for a couple to spend time together and learn about each other. Marriage Encounter is a 3-day retreat, where under the guidance of successfully married couples, an engaged couple can explore their own and their respective partners religious and moral convictions.
These retreats are an excellent source of marriage advice because they are far more than seminars. They are interactive sessions, with numerous exercises where a couple can build their marriage before it actually begins. The leaders of these workshops are typically 2-3 married couples, both young and old, who have gone through the trials and tribulations of marriage.
They help a couple, who are engaged to be married, to communicate, prepare for a their wedding and their future life together. Also in these retreats, sexuality in marriage and parenting are discussed. Prospective marriage partners can study their religions expectations of marriage to gain wisdom and knowledge. Theres also much prayer and study to examine ones own expectations.
Each partner in a dating relationship should educate himself or herself about marriage and Churchs commands concerning marriage before making the life long commitment of marriage. In addition to strategies on resolving arguments, improving communications and how to resolve conflicts, you should study about love and obligation to another, the roles of husbands and wives and about sexual relations. Understanding one anothers expectations of marriage can make it easier to fulfill expectations.
Another way a dating couple can get marriage advice is by finding a good married couple to use as mentors. This couple may near the same age, but I recommend your mentors be 10+ years older. Your mentors can help answer questions that may arise such as how to balance work and home and how to foster intimacy in their marriage.
This does not just refer to physical intimacy but the emotional intimacy so crucial for a life long relationship. The advice this model couple can provide can really benefit your future marriage.
An engaged couple should remember that their relationship is most importantly a commitment between each other and a promise for the rest of your lives. Marriage cant be cancelled out by sickness, poverty, crisis, weight gain or boredom. Because your marriage could face incredible crisis, you need to learn to lean on each other. Divorce should never be considered as a viable option. Many people also look to the Bible for marriage advice.
Unfortunately, the rose colored glasses can fall off forcing you to see your partner as a flawed human being. It is at this time, when despite the other persons flaws, you still love them and that you begin realize that you are ready for a committed marriage.
When a dating couple decide to move their relationship forward and begin a marriage, they need to prepare themselves mentally and spiritually. Theres plenty of people, books and websites available to get wedding advice, but getting live advice from a trusted religious source will help both partners to be strong and effectively face all the difficulties they may encounter.
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