By Dunni Richies
Marriage does not have a mind of its own, it only takes after the mindset, lifestyle, character, believes, knowledge and the efforts made by the people involved.
My fear is the image that many single people now have about marriage as if its a trap zone or a death sentence. No, it is not, it is the people who go into it that bears the character of what we now see as scary and uncomfortable.
The truth is, no miracle happens at the alter, an abusive boy will eventually become an abusive husband, a rude girl will eventually become a rude wife.
Same way, a supportive girl will become a supportive wife while an understanding boy will become an understanding husband.
Their are two things that makes this truth bitter for many, the first is peoples inability to identify a true character of the boys or the girls before they become husbands or wives. The second is inability to curtail the weaknesses that trails the strength that attracted them to one another in the first place.
So weather its infidelity, and other character defects, being able to identify it in the midst of the first stage of any emotional attachment can save alot.
We have also seen martial failures being credited to influence of third party, economic pressure, unmet expectations and even demonic interference amongst others, meanwhile one thing still stands out, that is the knowledge of how to manage marital issues.
Here comes the big question, does people really seek these kind of knowledge before going into marriage?
However, despite all the discouraging noise of marital failures that fills our society, despite the terrible stories behind the high rate of divorce, even as we see people lamenting greatly about having terrible experience in their marriages, their are more number of people with good stories to tell.
We have seen marriages that lasts decades with the couples bearing even their 4th generations, and many of the newly married will still add to that list depending on how the people involved are.
This therefore pose a strong obligation on stakeholders who have influence on boys and girls to deliberately include educative teachings on character formation and relationship management in their activites with them.
We also need to be intentional about role modeling and mentorship. We will save the next generation if we can present a good image that is worthy of emulation.
Our children will be proud to inherit the virtues of our good image so lets keep giving it what it takes to make them proud.