New Articles about Marriage

I am always on the lookout for interesting articles about marriage and this week there have been a few new ones.

One I heard about is interesting. I know I have spoken about some of these issues in my past blogs, but it bears repeating. I believe in marriage and I believe in the commitment that one makes when one gets married. However, there are “deal breakers.” What this means is that there are certain diseases that attack a marriage which often result in its demise.

• Infidelity 33%
• Chronic fighting 28%
• No longer in love 24%
• Boredom 8%
• Sexual incompatibility 7%

All of these “deal breakers” are of course, subjective. In my mind, much bigger “deal breakers” are physical/emotional abuse, drug/alcohol addiction, criminal activity and the latest fad, sexual addiction.
We have heard lots about infidelity these days in the media and it is always interesting to see which marriages end up surviving it or not. Chronic fighting may be fixable but falling out of love may be a cancer to the marriage.

I read an article today on how people usually marriage someone with opposite spending habits from their spouse. If one partner loves to spend money, a good match is to a spouse who loves to save money. It goes with the theory that opposites attract.

Living with someone with a different style around money can be a great challenge. Indeed, money disagreements are the top reason that couples fight and those fights about finances are the best indicator of divorce. Therefore, it is important to recognize, understand and be able to work with different styles of money management for a marriage to be happy and healthy. Many pre-marital education and counseling courses focus on this vital issue.

Another article I read about was the effects of minor irritations on a marriage. When you first get married, it seems that minor irritations just evaporate like raindrops on a hot pavement. However, when you are over the honeymoon phase, minor irritations cause eruptions like volcanoes. I am of the belief that when minor irritations become frequent and bring an aura of discontent, there is usually a bigger issue that has not been discussed/resolved between partners. Once the bigger issue is resolved, the minor irritations once again become solvable.

I saw a book that looks intriguing. It’s called “Laugh your Way to a Better Marriage” by Mark Gungor. Moreover, couldn’t we all use a laugh now and then?