I"m sure you agree that marriage is a commitment. It is a very important decision that a couple has to stick with for the rest of their lives, through good times and bad. It is a sacred promise that would not be fulfilled until death, hence the line "Till death do us part". Marriage offers a life of love and happiness but it also will hand you a share of conflicts, hard work and worries. That is why there are three important points you need to remember and have when you decide to enter marriage. These are 1) Human Maturity, 2) Value Clarification, and 3) Authentic Love.
You need human maturity before entering marriage. Human Maturity refers to a person's self-esteem. You have achieved human maturity when you are able to stand alone on your own two feet and have a sense of self. Knowing who you are and being confident in your own skin enables you to devote and offer your entire self to your partner without having any doubts. It also lets you and your partner get to know each other completely and when you know each other that much, you are able to truly trust each other. Lack of human maturity often leads to insecurities, jealousy and lost of trust. Now, you wouldn't want that in your marriage, would you?.
The second requirement is value clarification. This means that one has to have a set of priorities and principles. You must know what you want and where you stand and you must be able to share these with your partner so that you two would be able to work on how you would put these priorities and principles into practice. Value clarification gives your marriage a direction. Some think that having a partner with the same set of values as theirs is important. It is good to have a partner having similar values as you but it isn't necessarily important because if you love each other enough, you two would be able to compromise and work things out on what is best for each other.
The last of the three points is authentic love.
