Marriage Preparation

On to the next subject... Marriage preparation. Did you know that people who have marriage preparation before they get married (like a class on temples or a professional counselor between you and your fiance or reading books on intamacy (NOT TOGETHER)) are 40% more likely to succeed in their marriage?

I totally didn't know that until my class. I think that it makes perfect rational sense though!

There are normative and non normative events in everyone’s lives. Normative are those things that you can predict (marriage, having children, etc) non-normative things are those that you cannot predict (death, break ups, etc). Marriage is combining two different ideologies into one. There are many different perspectives and opinions towards things that you and your future spouse are going to have to learn and come to agreements on. Marriage preparation not only helps couples learn to communicate, but it can also help one see if they have a mature or immature love and if they are in it for the right reasons.
Some of the benefits of intentional marriae preparation:

• Will help ease some of the myths about marriage and itimacy
• Help the couple realize the commitments and covenants they will make with eachother and God
• Help them determine – The Right Place, Right Time, Right Person, Right Relationship
• Help them to either grow together or learn that they have an immature love that won’t gorw

Some of the premarital individual, couple, and contextual factors that predict marital success or trouble are the following:

• Finances
• Power Struggles
• Age differences
• Education
• Parental approval
• Friends approval

So with all this information said, I know that most of our readers are married... and probably realize that some couseling would be good every once in a while :) However, what was the hardest thing for you to learn when you were first married? For Dan and I, we had a hard time learning finances because we grew up in two totally different financial worlds. We had to figure out who does the budgeting? Who spends the money? Who earns the money? What are our monetary priorities? I tell you, it was hard enough having all those new expenses as a married couple. We talke d a lot about things before we were married, but it was still hard to learn.
What kinds of advice would you give to those who are engaged or newly married?