Myth #5 - Marriage Is the Cure for Your Personal Problems

I can remember being a kid and thinking that when I turned sixteen and had my own car, all my problems would be solved. After sixteen the next marker was turning twenty-one. I was sure that the step into adulthood would give me the solutions that I wanted and felt I needed. It made perfect sense to me: Because adults could do whatever they wanted to do, being an adult would solve everything for me. Then my focus turned to marriage. That had to be the solution—or at least part of it. Maybe marriage would not solve all my problems but hopefully a lot of them. I was sure that at least all the issues involving sexual temptation and lust would be solved in marriage!

Often as we go through life, we look for quick-fix solutions that will answer the problems we face. As we enter into marriage, I think it is easy to have unrealistic expectations of what marriage will be like for us. Then when our expectations are not met, we begin to point fingers. Seldom do we point the finger back to ourselves.

Marriage will never cure all your personal problems. God never said that was the purpose of marriage. Marriage was designed to give us a life partner—someone who can grow with us spiritually and navigate with us through the better/worse, richer/poorer, sickness/health days of our lives. Again, marriage will never be the cure for all your personal problems. That job was taken a long time ago by Jesus. Marriage is the relationship God gave us for the journey of life!