Being Prepared for Marriage

A couple weeks ago I shared a post for the unmarried ladies on Praying for your Future Husband.  Apparently these dear single sisters are still on my heart because here is another post mostly for them, but also just a little bit for those of us who are married.

What does being prepared for marriage mean? Filling a hope chest? Learning the basics of homemaking? Knowing how to make a killer pie? because we all know “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach! 😉

All of those are great things to know, but I think being prepared for marriage is a bit more than just that.

Being prepared for marriage needs to go farther than just physical preparations. It needs to start in the heart. When I look back at the single me, I see that I was focusing on learning housekeeping skills, and how to cook. I was praying for my future husband yes, but I’m not so sure I was really preparing my heart.

In marriage a wife is to respect her husband, and yes, to submit to him as well. She is to show him honor and realize that she is no longer alone, but has someone to lean on and be protected by.

By nature I am a very independent woman. I tend to figure things out on my own, take charge and sometimes be very careless about other people’s feelings.  Independence is good, thoughtlessness is not.

So how could I have done a better job at being prepared for marriage?

First and foremost by remembering that I was not alone even then.  Even if a girl doesn’t have her dad to protect and cherish her as a dad should; she always has her heavenly father.  Too many times I tried to just do it on my own without taking it to the Lord in prayer first.

It stands to reason then that some of our conflict in our early years of marriage came from me forgetting that I had a partner and just doing things without remembering to consult my husband.

Another thing is the way I tend to be so wrapped up in what I’m doing that I fail to notice others around me. Thus I was insensitive to my husband’s needs because I was so focused on my own.

I know there are many more ways to prepare your heart for marriage, but for me those are probably the two areas I would have done well to worked on before marriage.

Being prepared for marriage on a heart level.

Number 1. Consult the Lord and those you respect before jumping in to something…

Number 2. Be aware of others and sensitive to their needs.

Now as a married woman, I have had to learn to consult the Lord and my husband, and to be sensitive to his needs.