The Importance of a Pre-marital Course
Author: Xinming L.
Level: 7
Instructor: Diane Neville
Photo Credit: sorrapongs / 123 RF Stock Photo
Article ID: 2473 [Family- Spring 2022]
Getting married is definitely not as simple as two people living together. The Bible describes marriage, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ It's a combination of two into one.
Modern people are self-conscious, as well as more self-centered. But this does not apply to marriage relationships. Marriage is not for self-gratification, but for self-sacrifice for each other. Jesus said, "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." By the same token in marriage, when you give yourself to the other for each other, you will gain a lot from each other.
Back to reality, preparing to enter marriage requires not only mental adjustment but also specific and practical planning. So pre-marital counseling is very necessary. The courses of premarital counseling include knowing and understanding each other; the difference between men and women; Knowing the original family; financial planning; how to resolve and deal with conflicts……
‘Knowing and understanding each other’ will help men and women who are preparing for marriage to better understand themselves and each other through personality tests; It is very interesting that men and women are not only physically different but also have very different perceptions of affairs. Someone says: “Men are from Mars and women are from Venus.” Counseling sessions also help couples entering into a marriage get to know each other better from the differences between men and women; Someone says that marriage is the union of two families. This is true, everyone has their own family background. So, when they get married, they also bring their own family background into the marriage. Knowing each other's original family and fully accepting each other's growing family background is the starting point for building a good marriage. Other topics include how to plan financially after the arranged marriage, how to resolve and deal with conflicts, etc... These are all covered by the pre-marriage counseling course.