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Romanticizing Marriage?
If you're on this website and in this section, chances are you would like or long to be married. Understood. Me, too. Marriage, especially with God at the center, can be great. I find, though, that sometimes my desire for it gets a little carried away at times. Being something of a romantic, I can have daydreams that feature what I'm afraid is an unrealistic view of married bliss. Sure, there can be bliss---but not unceasing bliss. Marriage is serious, too, I have to keep reminding myself. I need to be stabilized. Two things that are helpful are listening and reading. It helps to listen carefully to various couples talk about their experience of marriage, especially seasoned couples and spiritually mature couples.
Maintaining a habit of reading about marriage periodically can help, too. Some articles and books are better and have more substance than others. Two books worth seeing are The Mystery of Marriage (by Mike Mason) and Sacred Marriage (by Gary Thomas); they talk about the subject in realistic and spiritual terms. These two disciplines (listening and reading) do us good in both the short and long term. They help us to be a little more sober-minded about marriage now and also prepare us to be better spouses for if and when that time comes for us.
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