Marriage is a very big step for any couple. Just like any serious undertaking, you must prepare for marriage before you go into it. Below are a few attributes that you must have if you’re to succeed in marriage:
- Patience
One of the key qualities that every partner in a marriage must have is patience. No two human beings can have a productive relationship without disagreements. It will not always be rosy and your patience with each other will keep you from hurting each other and going to the extreme when you’re angry. Also, children are bound to rub you the wrong way so you have to prepare yourself for provocation and figure out how to handle it when it comes.
- Proper Communication Skills
To succeed in a marriage, you must learn the art of communication. You must be diplomatic and cautious and learn to pass your message across without being aggressive and aggravating your partner unnecessarily. You must be able to read between the lines of your partner’s words and know when they want to talk and when they just want to be left alone.
- Selflessness
The act of marriage requires you to be selfless. You must learn to put your partner and the family you build together above your own desires. It means that sometimes you’ll want to buy a new gold watch but you’ll decide to buy your child a toy instead. It means that you’ll buy a cheaper car just so your husband can indulge his designer suit fantasies. Being married requires you to be selfless.
- Cooking
This is not just for the woman. It is very necessary for both partners to know how to cook. A family must be fed and the wife may not always be available. What happens if the wife goes on a business trip or if she just had a baby and daddy is left with the older children? Nobody is saying you should enrol in culinary school but basic cooking skills are necessary.
- Self-control
A person who will make a good spouse must have a lot of self-control. Sometimes you will get so angry that you want to shout and slap somebody but you have to be able to keep yourself in check. Your husband will annoy you, your wife will upset you and your kids might decide to be little terrors now and then. You have to be able to stay calm and handle the matter with maturity.
- Resilience
The journey of marriage is not for the faint hearted. It requires a lot of work and determination. Sometimes as a woman, you might be in pain for one reason or the other, yet you have to find the strength to cook for your family, prepare your children for school etc. As a man, you might have had a hard day at work and you just want to lie on your bed and go to sleep, yet you have to fix things when you get home and do some work here and there. Being successful in marriage requires resilience and strength.