Most people marry with the desire to stay together forever, to preserve it successfully. However, couples often do not follow the recipe for preservation and end up being discarded in divorce. The successful preservation of a marriage can be compared to the preservation of a food product. Food canners must determine what they want to keep, strive to mix all the ingredients, and the energy to seal them properly to be successful. This is the same principle in marriage.

The first step in preserving food is determining which product to keep and collecting all the necessary ingredients and equipment. To find out what is needed, the preservative usually follows a recipe that has been written by someone with experience. In marriage, it is best for couples to begin with the determination or goal to remain married until one of the spouses passes away. To make this commitment, it is best to have premarital counseling and a White Bible Ceremony to reinforce the things that keep a marriage successful. When someone with prior knowledge of a successful marriage talks to you about the expectations of the marriage, your marriage is more likely to be preserved. Commitment to marriage vows is essential if a marriage is to be preserved.

In food preservation, the process involves mixing the ingredients correctly. When ingredients are not mixed properly, the product may not keep. There are ingredients in marriage that must be combined to make a man and a woman a family unit. Family history, income, past debts, and church relationships should be discussed. When problems arise, couples should pray and talk about feelings and options. Sometimes family responsibilities become one-sided due to illness, job requirements, or moments of separation. Although couples ideally share 50/50, in these times, spouses may have to share 90/10. During these times, seek the advice of mentors and through prayer to prevent your marriage from going bad.

People who spend energy, time and money to preserve a food product want the food to be properly sealed for the future. People who want a marriage to be successful must spend their entire lives working on it. Sometimes food products are not properly sealed and food makes people sick and must be thrown away. However, in marriage, when things go wrong, couples are challenged to make adjustments to preserve it. Speaking the old-fashioned way, remembering the love that first bought them, doing kind deeds for each other, and remembering that forgiveness solves many burning problems, couples can live for a successfully preserved marriage. A successful marriage is one that should not be scrapped. It is one that does not waste time, energy, and money on divorces. It is one that is preserved until one of the spouses passes into eternity.

Let YOUR marriage be a jarring experience, successfully preserved!