If you’re not ready to delay gratification when your are angry; to hold
your tongue, lower your voice and sometimes wait till the appropriate
time, day or even month before you can deal with an issue thoroughly….
don’t get married. Immaturity is the inability to delay gratification. Marriage is for the mature.
If you’re not ready to leave center stage and allow someone else to become your focus, your study, your muses…
don’t get married.
Selfish people make very bad spouses. In marriage you don’t lose
yourself but your heart has to be big enough to gain someone else. And
soon, with God’s blessing: little, crying, diaper soiling, demanding
little ones are coming!
If you are not ready, to stand up and calmly deal with meddling in laws
as a united front: The opinionated sister, the insensitive uncle, the
domineering father, the manner less brother, the nosy aunt…..
don’t get married.
Boundaries do not exist automatically, they must be created. A good
spouse is committed to respectfully stand up for and protect their
marriage from meddling relatives. Don’t abandon your spouse to your
relatives. It’s betrayal.
If you are not ready to pay bills….
don’t get married. Love does
not pay bills. Kenya power will not give a waiver because your love is O
so strong and your gazes at each other, O so romantic.
If you are not ready to let go of your opposite sex “best friends” and
invest that into your spouse; to like, to laugh, to play, to be silly
and to enjoy life with them, above anyone else…
don’t get married.
Affairs happen because people did not marry their best friends. Someone
else holds their heart. Someone else gets them better. Someone else
inspires them more. Marry your best friend and cultivate your friendship
so that you remain best friends.
If you are not ready to stop competing with the Joneses….
don’t get married.
Let the Joneses buy their yatch when you are still walking, and enjoy
the walk. Your journeys are different. They may have to cross the oceans
but you may be going through the road route. A boat might not do you
any good on your journey. You must be ready to pace yourselves: stop
competing, stop spending your future before you get there, stop the
debt, stop trying to impress people. You must be able to be content. To
enjoy your journey without deciding your happiness simply by measuring
your progress against other people.
If you are not ready to be an open book; to tell the whole story of your
past, deal with the memories, expose the failures and risk rejection….
don’t get married.
It is fraud to have someone sign off their life to you without the full
details. The past is a touchy and demanding friend. It always shows up
in the marriage. It doesn’t enjoy being ignored and the more you snob,
the bolder it becomes and the more tantrums it throws. It will mess up
the “neat” and “all together lovely” image that you are struggling to
maintain.
If you are not ready to let go of your philandering and wild oats farming….
don’t get married.
Don’t take somebody’s son or daughter and subject them to your germs,
your indiscretions and your chips fungaz. It never ends well. It’s
romanticized in the movies, it’s being fronted as the only “realistic”
way to stay married and keep the fire burning. But truth be told, the
only thing that the fire will burn will be you, your spouse and your
children. That family will burn for generations in bitterness, disease,
fear, failure, hatred, broken hearts, broken dreams and conniving.
Finally, if you are not ready to let go of the adrenalin rush ofa risque life and to settle down….
don’t get married.
The great Colombus [who we were told "discovered" America, Have you
ever wondered if the Native Indians who were in it, knew that it existed
had a diary that was long sought for. People wanted to read about the
wild journeys, the sea tempest, the reckless pirates they fought, the
death and the danger they must have encountered. When it was found,
there was great disappointment. Majority of the pages simply had 5
words: “This day, we sailed on.”.
Marriage, like life in general, has many “we sail on” days. You have to
learn to find the thrill in the normal everydayness of it. If you depend
on wild romance, all night sex, romantic cruises, wild parties,
compulsive moves across continents, tempestuous fights and make up
sessions to be happy, you may be disappointed. You have to learn to
thrill in gentle smiles, loving hugs, knowing looks, cozy moments,
shared chores, cute babies, everyday work, dreaming together, praying
together and simply living together. If these things are not thrilling,
exciting and satisfying, you will look for a way out. The “boom twaff”
moments are still there, but they are normally punctuations to the
usualness of living. They cannot be your reason for getting married.
They are unsustainable on an everyday basis. The one you choose must be
thrilling to you even in the most mundane of moments.
I pray this helps someone. Remember singles, YOU HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF
CHOICE. Never let anyone pressure you into marriage. You are either
ready or you’re not: You decide!. But please don’t marry somebody and
then punish them to live with your childish ways for the rest of their
lives
. A childish baby is cute but a childish adult is extremely frustrating.
Marriage is for the mature and in many ways, we the married, are still
being confronted with the demand to grow up day by day. If you are not
ready for that demand, don’t get married!!!!
