Catalyst to a Successful Marriage

Faithfulness of both husband and wife in respect of their marriage vow is fundamental to the growth and stability of marriage. Faithfulness is the foundation of a lasting relationship. It also generates mutual trust that keeps husbands and wives together in spite of the destructive activities of relations, friends and neighbours.

Are you faithful to your spouse? Before you answer, ‘Yes’, check the following areas of your marriage vow.

1. Do you regard your marriage as a life relationship (i.e. ‘till death do you part’)? If you have an option for divorce in case of any difficulty or unresolved conflict, you can be tempted to use this option when the occasions you set for it arise. You need to know that there is no conflict-free and problem-free marriage. Only the couples that manage their conflicts and problems and do not allow them to affect their relationship can enjoy a stable and happy marriage.
2. Do you marry your spouse for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer? Nothing is permanent in this life. The Scripture even confirms that 'there is time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven' (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Marriage is not a bed of roses. There is time of joy or sorrow, time of plenty or lack. You should not allow the changing situations in your marriage to affect your marriage love. You should confront negative situations in your marriage together with patient, prayer and understanding.
3. Do you truly forsake all others and cleave to your spouse? If you allow a third party to meddle with the affairs of your marriage, this will open your marriage to different ideas. These ideas may be conflicting and biased. They can cause problems and conflicts between you and your spouse. Many marriages have broken up as a result of the activities of third parties. Please watch.
4. Do you use all your possessions to honour and care for your spouse? If you do not regard your possessions as being jointly owned by you and your spouse for the mutual benefit of both of you, there will be selfishness and individualism in your marriage. This always works against the principle of oneness in marriage as pronounced by God in Genesis 2:24.
5. Do you fulfil your conjugal obligations to your spouse? Your failure in your conjugal duties to your spouse can push him/her to an extra-marital affair. Once this happens, your marriage may not be the same again.
6. Are you sure you did not hold back certain secrets that could have prevented your spouse from entering into marriage with you? Such secrets are: impotency, having a child before marriage, incurable/terminal disease, drug addiction etc. Keeping such a secret from your spouse is hypocrisy. Discovering the secrets later will destroy the seed of mutual trust that is fundamental to marriage love and growth.
7. Do you share your spouse’s feelings with him/her at all time? Do you accept that you are one with your spouse and you are living in the light of this principle? If your answer is, yes, you will share your spouse's feeling with him/her at all time. Failure to live in the light of this principle is an indication that your marriage lacks the real love that can make it to be blissful.