4. Determination
Nothing is impossible to a determined man. Success in marriage requires determination without compromise. Intruders are meant to come either through friends, relations and colleagues to mislead you, but do not allow anything or anyone to disrupt your home and family life.
Most times, individuals make destructive mistakes of reporting their spouse to their parent(s) or colleague(s) at work, knowing well that they have nothing meaningful to contribute than to mislead. Hence let us pit a stop to reporting our spouse and making mockery of ourselves.
5. Direction
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Plan your life; don’t let it just happen. Plan your holidays, outings and your time together. Plan buying properties and making other investments together. There must be mutual agreement because two are better than one (Amos 3:3).
6. Work on your finance
Poor management of money can cause serious strain, tension and bad temper. It can tear up a home if the family foundation is not strong and solid. Money can either be the best area of communication in marriage or be the worst. Great things can be accomplished if this area of finance is well planned.
If a couple cannot have meaningful discussion and reach compromise over the issue of money, they may not be able to talk about other vital areas for a healthy relationship. Couples should sit down and work out family budget together. Proper financial planning will limit your spending and lead you to greater achievement.
Talk about sex
You must be able to talk about sex together. Don’t shy away from it. Sex in marriage can still be exciting if talked about. There must be quality sexual discussion in couple’s interaction.
Sexual intercourse is a complex issue. Hence, newly-married couples should allow time and not expect everything to click on the first night. Christ-like love is genuine. It is agape kind of love. It lasts, no matter the storm.
Hence my advice to the singles is that they must not marry for anything than pure and real love. True love stands in the face of any trial. You need to really seek God’s guidance and pray through with convincing confirmation before signing the dotted lines.
Nevertheless, I need to quickly mention here that no marriage can stand the test of time without going through turbulent times and moments. At such times, couples are to get closer and seek God’s attention and intervention in solving or resolving these challenges.
Marriage is like a besieged city; those inside it are looking for a way out because they are not finding things easy, while those outside desire to enter. The bible says “better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof”. In this age, when all scared values of marriage have been swept under the carpet in the name of civilisation and trying to be like the western world, we still have so many homes intact. I have seen couples celebrate 50th wedding anniversary, even above.
I counsel couples experiencing turbulence in their relationship to learn from these exemplary homes. Move close to men and women that are old in marriages. Ask them questions of how they were able to handle every storm that came their way and how they were able to retain their union despite all odds.
Let us discuss some further solutions out of marital slavery. There is need for everyone reading this column to pay attention to what I am about sharing with you. Do you know that love has a language that must be learnt and spoken by everyone in love or intending to be in love?