Is A Marriage Definition The Key To A Happy Marriage
The marriage definition most of us use is “the state of being a married couple
voluntarily joined for life”, but that is not going to help your marriage. If you’ve been having trouble with your
relationship with your spouse, or even if you haven’t, you may need to come up with your own marriage
definition.
In modern America, more than half of all marriages end in divorce. This means that
the odds are stacked against you from the start. People attribute the failure of their marriage to many things,
from infidelity to problems with money, but the truth is, there’s usually one cause for most divorces: lack of
communication.
The problem is that people have different expectations of what they want and can
get out of their marriage. While this may be a small problem in the beginning of a marriage, it can rapidly
snowball until too much damage has been done for the marriage to be repaired. What you need to do, as early as
possible, is create your own marriage definition.
A marriage definition is a concrete, agreed upon set of expectations and
limitations. When you do this, you make sure that your spouse and you have the same ideas about what your
relationship is supposed to be. Without this, it’s entirely possible that you and your spouse’s definitions are
going to be different enough to cause problems.
For example, the marriage definition you use might be that you spend every moment
together. Your spouse might have the idea that because you’re married that you have a bond that does require you to
see each other constantly. If you’re working off different expectations, you’re going to be setting yourself up for
heartache.
It’s natural for us to assume that other people think like we do; it’s even more
natural to think that your spouse, your heart and soul, the person you’re going to spend the rest of your life
with, will automatically understand us.
The fact is, unless you’re very, very lucky, being in synch like that is not
something that just happens. It’s something you have to work at, and that’s why you have to take the earliest
possible time and set down with your partner and talk about exactly what you want. What you need to do is create a
new marriage definition.
This is not necessarily going to be an easy thing to do. Most of us don’t like to
have these kinds of conversations, but it’s something you really need to do. Even if your spouse, or soon to be
spouse, is reluctant, sit them down and have the conversation. You need to know exactly what each of you thinks
about and wants from your relationship.
What you’re trying to do here is come to an agreement. You need to know ahead of
time what you both want and what compromises you’re willing to make and need to make to have a successful
relationship.
The best thing you can do is to create a new marriage definition for yourselves.
This is the way to find the kind of marriage that will keep you together forever. If you need help working through
the process, there are lots of resources available to help create the marriage of your
dreams.
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