God should be brought into the marriage setup because it is His institution. In fact, God has to be invited right at the beginning of it all so that He controls and takes charge of each and every activity involved. Time must be allocated when the couple prays together and shares the Word of God. They ought to have sufficient time to express each other’s anxieties and worries so that they pray for each other. The couple or family that prays together stays together.
Maintaining love requires a lot of give and take. The couple should strive to maintain the love by always wishing to please the other. Love means giving to the other whole heartedly and in full measure irrespective of what the other is doing. The emphasis goes to the man who is asked by God to love his wife, the same way Christ loves the Church. This means the man must love his wife despite her weaknesses and failures. This is termed unconditional love. This love must be expressed.
The couple should submit to each other as this is one way of expressing respect for the other partner. Views contributed by either of them should be taken into consideration, discussed and an agreement should be made by both of them. This helps build the self-worth of the other and is vital in this setup.
The emphasis goes to the woman who is commanded by God to submit to her husband as the Church submits to Christ. By nature, most women are very argumentative and use words carelessly. As a result of this, God requires women to acquire the spirit of submission to their husbands in order to reckon the authority God gave man over his life.
The couple has to be honest with each other because the two are going to live together. They must be able to express themselves in an honest manner, giving the other no reason for doubt. This way, they build trust in each other and peace prevails in the home. In every marriage, there are six people who enter the relationship.
These are the husband as he is, the husband as the type of husband he wants to be and the husband as his wife expects him to be. The same applies to the wife. In other words, there are two real people, and four imaginary people involved. Remember the four imaginary people simply do not exist so accept yourself and your partner the way you really are.
