Transitions in Marriage

I think the most surprising element in discussion is how difficult marriage really is.  You don't really hear to many horror stories in our little bubble here on campus.  However, I took a marriage preparation class last semester and our professor told us that there was a survey given on campus asking married students how satisfied they were in their marriages.  Most people said they were miserable, or their marriages were barely bearable.  How sad!! I immediately wanted to know how to avoid this. My professor told us that we had to be prepared to accept the fact that marriage is hard for at least the first year, we also touched on that in Brother William's class.  Many people get caught up in the fact that they want a wedding, not a marriage.  We also don't really get to discussing what is going to happen once we're married.  In this case, we kind of just go with the flow and ignore the red flags that we should be addressing, such as finances and other mountains couples climb in their marriages.  In other cases, some people have their first baby in early stages of marriage and the woman goes through a significant change.  This often times leads to baby blues.  If the husband can't provide emotional comfort during this time, often they couple draws apart rather than growing closer together in the joy of their child.  There are many obstacles that need to be dealt with in marriages and it's important that we learn how before stepping into an eternal relationship so we can have the most fulfilling experience.