Analysis Of ' One Love Under God ' By H. Norman Wright

Americans fabricate an unidealistic version of marriage. We seem to believe marriage is like a movie. That we all have a Prince Charming or Cinderella that waits on us, but realistically these expectations are wrong. We have to create our own “perfect” marriage. Marriages can be everything, but perfect. The ability to create a successful and happy marriage requires both spouses to play a part in the marriage. In time marriages all have tough times that involve work, money, time, and love. Spouses can become unhappy when one spouse does all the financial providence and the other does all the housework chores. Spouses seem to like equality in the home. Imbalances in the relationship occur more often than not. The ability for a marriage to overcome these issues and the ability

Love and commitment go hand-in-hand when it comes to marriage. A marriage cannot survive solely on love, but it also cannot survive without love. The same applies to commitment. When a man and woman utter the words “till death do us part” on their wedding day, they are committing themselves to each other, promising to never leave, no matter what obstacles they must face. However, almost half of all marriages are ending in divorce, despite the fact that these divorced couples vowed to be with each other forever. These marriages are ending because people fail to realize that a marriage must have both love and commitment in order to be successful. In the Bible, God tells us that marriage means forever. Divorce is no excuse or a way out. When a couple promises to be with

Modern, contemporary society’s mindset on marriage has shifted considerably over the years. Some research has noted the increase in early sexual experiences, greater acceptance of cohabitation and the increase in narcissistic tendencies, are complicating and muddying the ideals of what marriage means to people today. Research done on this subject resulted in several studies that found that spouses who did not believe that marriage would last forever, were less likely to commit to the relationship financially and were more likely to have extramarital affairs.

Cohabitation is linked to several evidence that prove the effect of cohabitation is actually not favorable in a relationship. In contrary to the beliefs that cohabitation is beneficial in future marriage, premarital cohabitation cause instability in marriage instead. Stanley M. Scott, Kline Rhoades Galena, and Howard J.

Marriage has been constantly changing over the past centuries. Currently, trends in marriage have adopted a new way of getting married through splitting responsibilities and work, resulting in social freedom for individuals. "The Myth of Co-Parenting,” by Hope Edelman demonstrates the difficulties of taking all the responsibilities while in “ My Problem with Her Anger,” explains the needs of having a better understanding of each other. Due to marriage changing over the last centuries, marriage couples desire individuals’ expectations and freedom to be met in marriage.

“Systematic study of marital satisfaction remains vital”(Bradbury, T. N., Fincham, F. D., & Beach, S. R. (2000), because in the “Western culture more than 90 percent of people are married by

In life many individuals will experience the joys of marital bliss with the pleasure of happiness when they see their spouse, the thought of living their entire lives together, starting and raising a family, the process of buying their first home together as a married couple, and overall embarking on a new and profound journey with the one they love; on the contrary however many of these same couples will encounter times in the relationship and within their immediate family that will include feelings of: being overwhelmed, stressed, annoyed with their spouse, children, stepchildren “as many families are blended due to many first marriages ending in divorce after children have been conceived,” stress from work, bills, as well as the many other

The majority of people who join together with their significant other through the act of marriage hope and dream that marriage will surround them with infinite love and happiness; unfortunately that is not always the case. In fact, “according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey, 10 percent of Maine women and 11 percent of men in Maine are divorced.”1 Though 10 and 11 percent seem like fairly small percentages, 10 percent of Maine women is approximately 67,831 women, and 11 percent of Maine men is approximately 71,506 men, which truly are not small figures to take into consideration. Since marriages do not always have a happy ending

“’Yes, but how often the happiness of marriages founded on reason crumbles to dust because the very passion that was disregarded makes itself felt later.’ said Vronsky. ‘But by “marriages founded on reason”, we mean marriages between those who have both passed through that madness. It’s like scarlet fever: one has to get it over.’” (125)

underpins marriage in many Western and some non-Western countries.” Scholars have continued to argue the success of monogamous relationships. Harville Hendrix (1990) explains that monogamy is a healing practice. Partners in monogamous relationships go through many stages and struggles as a committed couple. Through struggle, partners act as healers that help to work through each other’s suffering (Hendrix 1990). Hendrix (1990) believes individuals choose their partners to work through the pain together and help them grow through life. Monogamous marriage is a spiritual path to happiness and commitment between two individuals (Hendrix 1990). A committed relationship requires monogamy, and Hendrix (1990) contends that healthy and spiritual commitments encourage the sustainability of monogamous relationships. Although Hendrix (1990) contends that monogamy is an effective practice, research has largely built a case around the consequences of monogamous relationships.

Marriage requires effort and work. Many newlyweds come into a marriage thinking it is easy but do not consider the consequences of marriage that heavily rely on balances and partnership. Marriage is all about compromise. It is important to engage in a premarital program to allow both partners to learn what to expect within a marriage, how to face certain roadblocks, and to better communication when conflict is aroused so that divorce does not become an option. Gottman’s research (2009) has made a significant contribution to the study of relationship and marriage tying unity, harmony, and communication together to make relationship and marriage work. When a couple who does not have consummate love (intimacy, passion, and commitment), they often portray the six indicators of divorce: harsh startup, the Four Horsemen, flooding, body language, failed repair attempts and reflecting on bad memories (Gottman, 2009). Divorce often occurs within the first two years of marriages and almost half of divorces end within the first seven years (Bhutto-Ramirez, 2015).

Conversely, most people perceive marriage as a sanctuary, satisfying the needs of both partners involved. It is one of the most important institutions affecting people’s health and well-being. Firstly, a strong marriage has a dramatic effect on the partners’

The principles from this chapter that I am going to focus on are forgiving and serving others. Showing forgiveness and mercy towards others is vital in marriage and family life. When we have grace towards everyone around us we will inevitably have more love in our lives and relationships. If we are struggling forgiving a spouse it is important to serve them. When we serve others it will help bring joy to the person serving and the one being served. If we learn to forgive and serve in our marriages there will be more love and less contention.

Throughout the last half of the century, our society has watched the divorce rate of married couples skyrocket to numbers previously not seen. Although their has been a slight decline in divorce rates, “half of first marriages still were expected to dissolve before death.” (Stacy, 15, 1991) Whatever happened to that meaningful exchange of words, “until death do us part,” uttered by the bride and groom to each other on their wedding day? What could have been the cause of such inflated divorce rates? Perhaps young married couples are not mature enough to be engaged in such a trremendous responsibility, or, maybe, the couples really do not know each other as well as they thought. Possibly, they have been blinded by infatuation rather than by

As we learn to see our marriage through the framework of God’s purpose, we gradually experience expectations that reflect a new goal.