Top 20 Ways To Mess Up A Marriage:
- Have Premarital Sex - This can be with your future spouse or not. Regardless, the statistics show that it means a much higher chance of a failed marriage.
- Cohabitate - This doubles your chance of divorcing your spouse! Go with this one if you almost certainly want to mess up a marriage.
- Cheat on your spouse - Nothing rings the death knell of marriage like this one.
- Use porn - only the fastest growing reasons couples divorce today. Duh!
- Drink too much or use drugs - This one is a great way to love a thing more than your spouse.
- Marry for the wrong reasons - Marrying someone merely because you have strong emotions about them (which will eventually go away) or because they are good looking (which won't last) is a great way to eventually ruin a marriage. Attraction is all that matters.
- Never Work on Communication - talking is over-rated. You should just learn to tolerate one another, not really communicate.
- Be a Workaholic - being rich and successful is the most important thing on earth. Right?
- Be selfish - expect your spouse to serve your every need and never expect to return the favor.
- Have Different expectations about money or debt - Spend too much, live beyond your means, and then pay the price. Money is the #1 reason that couples argue.
- Don't tithe - The money is your own, do what you want with it.
- Use contraception - kids are a burden that make life miserable. Why take the risk? Of course couples that use NFP are happier, have better sex-lives, and stay married more than 95% of the time.
- Talk negatively about your spouse - who needs to be built up anyway?
- Make big purchases without talking about it first - want that new car? Go get it!
- Spend more time with your friends than your spouse - they are probably more fun anyway.
- Never let love mature - let your love remain all about the emotions and sex (neither are bad in-and-of-themselves) so that love never matures.
- Never go to church or pray together - marriage doesn't need God. Does it?
- Once you have kids focus all your attention on them - you shouldn't still work on the marriage, because the kids are most important.
- Marry a non-Christian - There are certainly marriages that succeed between believers and non-believers, but the least you are doing is putting a strain on a relationship.
- Never grow or change - no need to say you are sorry, no need to humble yourself, no need to make changes. Just stay who you are.
Someone asked if there were a similar post, without the sarcasm - so they could give it to a friend who could use the advice.
ReplyDeleteThe audience for this one is primarily college students preparing for marriage, so all of these topics can be found in other posts on our blog, but not in one place.