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Considering Success in Marriage
Your success in marriage depends largely upon having sound and constructive attitudes toward love. For Americans, this can be difficult. Especially because of the fictions we've been taught since childhood, which are supported by movies and other cultural influences. In fact, the love upon which so many base their marriages is one or a combination of the following:
1. The appeal of the romance and adventure of marriage itself
2. The response to a person who reminds them of some one whom they have loved
3. The desire to escape from an unhappy situation
4. Consolation for failure or disappointment
5. Social pressures and/or the fear of being "left on the shelf"
6. Sexual desires
7. Some minor point of attraction
These forms of love are not false ? they are very real. Often, they are intense enough to give a person an overwhelming feeling of certainty about marriage. And some of them ? such as numbers 1, 6 and 7 ? have a proper place in marriage.
Their danger is that they are superficial. No single one of them, or all of them together, is strong enough to constitute the foundations of a successful marriage. Yet these deceive people who believe that "love is enough" into choosing unsuitable mates.
Love which can make a marriage rich and worthwhile must go far deeper. It must be based upon such things as common interests, ideals, values, and goals which involve worthy purposes. A common desire to have and raise happy and healthy children is among the strongest and most important of these common goals. Such a love is not something which you "fall in" before you marry.
Rather, it is something which you build together through the years. Those who have found a sounder base for love wil find that the thrill, glow, and romance of their marriage increases over time. The richest joy of marriage comes from a relationship with each other which constantly develops and matures. The deepest and most abiding love is that which has become an expression of all life's experiences and meanings for you both.
Chuck Smith is the owner and webmaster of Wedding Home Pages, where you can download a professionally-designed wedding template for your special day. Visit Wedding Home Pages for the wedding web site of your dreams.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
New York Times, United States - Jan 7, 2009
“With these new digs, there might just be a new world wedding capital.” The city clerk’s office issued 66600 marriage licenses 2007 and performed about ...
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Washington Post
Kansas City Star, MO - 13 hours ago
And their mutual friends will have to decide which wedding to attend. All would be well if only one of them would cancel (or if they would agree to a double ...
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New York Times
San Francisco Chronicle, USA - 5 hours ago
The opening wedding scene in the new Bill Duke film, "Not Easily Broken" is so overwrought and cliched, it's akin to sitting down with a promising novel, ...
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Chicago Tribune, United States - 10 hours ago
By Roger Moore | Tribune Newspapers What it's about: Best friends become dueling brides when they both book the wedding they've always dreamed of in the ...
The Canadian Press, NEW YORK - 20 hours ago
"The magazine is realistic about how people's lives are today, but still the focus is how to have a successful wedding and start a healthy marriage," says ...
KVBC, NV - 8 hours ago
The city has renovated it marriage bureau and even built a 24000-square-foot wedding complex with the hope of becoming the most popular wedding site. ...
New York Magazine
New York Magazine, USA - Jan 7, 2009
Photo: Getty Images Perhaps sensing the economic downturn (and having eventually watched the Sex and the City movie), the city spruced up its civil-wedding ...
MLive.com
MLive.com, MI - 19 hours ago
Luczak said economics could be partly to blame, as young couples struggling to get a foothold in life may be putting off the expense of a wedding.
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Just 16 months after their wedding Governor Wallace was shot. The assassination attempt left Wallace paralyzed. Fifty-four days later, he left the hospital ...
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KHOU, TX - Jan 7, 2009
“I refuse to go into this marriage in debt, “ says Ashley. “That's no way to start out.” -- Watch the flowers. All those arrangements can quickly add up. ...
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