Friday, November 7, 2008

A Hard Marriage is Better than an Easy Divorce

By Keith Weaver

We've all heard that half of all marriages end in divorce. For second and third marriages the divorce rate is even higher. Almost everyone who gets married expects it to last for ever. But if this expectation is not accompanied by the realistic understanding of the ups and downs and hard work involved in marriage, then the outlook is indeed bleak.

We have all heard that marriage takes a lot of work. It's a clich that's been around for ages. Yet so many couples seem to jump into marriage and worry about the rest later. Sure, there are couples to whom a long-lasting relationship seems to come easy, but they are the exception to the rule. Couples need to realize and admit that it is difficult to make a marriage work sometimes and the only way to keep it going is to work at it.

Getting to the root of the problem can save a marriage. If you aren't happy in your relationship but can't identify the reason, you can't expect to be able to fix it. Jumping to divorce may not be the answer. You need to truly examine the reason for your unhappiness. Maybe you feel that you and your spouse have grown apart or there is a lack of communication between the two of you. Or it could even be that you have lost the romance in your relationship. There are times where one feels unappreciated or ignored. Any of these can cause a rift in a marriage but you need to identify your specific problem in order to be able to fix it and prevent divorce.

Simply knowing the issue does not solve it. You must communicate your feelings to your spouse. This may be easier said than done, especially considering that unhappiness if often the product poor communication or lack of communication. It may help to enlist the aid of a professional to help communicate your feelings to your partner. Even if your spouse refuses to see marriage counselor, attending alone may still be beneficial.

Another option at this stage is books. There are many books available on the subject of effective communication, and many of these focus on marriages specifically. They can be very effective for helping people learn to acknowledge the problems that are there, which is the first step to effective communication. Sometimes the biggest communication problem is not being able to admit to yourself what the problem is, or not being able to articulate what seems like vague feelings of unhappiness.

Once you and your partner have identified the problems, you can come up with an effective plan for solving them. It's easy to come up with a plan, but coming up with an effective plan requires open and honest communication between the partners. Both partners need to understand what their own needs are and what their partner's needs are to make sure that they aren't trying to solve the wrong problem.

You may even have to see a counselor to help you break your bad habits and figure out how to change your ways. You have to be especially committed and dedicated at this point because you are going to have to admit your fears, faults, and weaknesses. In other words, you are going to have to let yourself be vulnerable, which can be scary. But if you remain steadfast, you may be able to save your marriage.

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