toldailytopic: Shacking up. Is it wise for a couple to live together prior to marriag

annabenedetti

like marbles on glass
. Otherwise it's like watching two one-legged men struggling along using each other as a crutch, bound together by the fact that if either of them leaves they'll both fall over.

I prefer to think of it as a one-legged man and a one legged woman. :think:

Seriously, you make it sound so dire. I look at it this way - my husband and I are in a three-legged race - and we're winning!
 

Buzzword

New member
I'm saying that staying with somebody through thick and thin should be as a result of really loving them in the present and wanting to help them be well and happy, rather than because you signed a contract and gave them a piece of jewellery five years beforehand.
Agreed, and most happily married couples will tell you the commitment happened long before the ceremony.

However, as my pastor put it during our premarital counseling:
"Sometimes the love keeps the marriage together, sometimes the marriage keeps the love together."

Most of the time, the fact that you want them to be well and happy will keep the two of you together.

However, there will be times when the sheer fact that the two of you stood up and publicly declared your commitment before God and men will keep you from considering dissolving the commitment, and motivate you to work together and find a better solution.

Suit yourself. Maybe it's because I come from a long line of single-parent families, but I find it slightly creepy when people come to define themselves through a single other person. I much prefer to see two independent, autonomous individuals who choose to spend their time together even though they don't have to, and could function perfectly well on their own.
That can have a huge impact on your perception of marriage, or even committed relationships, since the first deeper-than-friendship relationship we see as children is in our parents.


I take it you've never been married?
Feel free to correct that assumption.

Experience is the only counteraction to that preference for independence.
Having found myself delightfully dependent, I can't imagine ever wanting to be a complete person on my own ever again.
I have built my identity as an adult on the foundation of my marriage.

I have chosen to be first and foremost her husband, now and for the rest of my life.


Of course, and this is a part of the argument that hasn't been brought into play yet, some people SHOULDN'T enter into a marriage relationship BECAUSE they prefer living completely on their own terms from start to finish.

That mentality is demonized because too many people treat the Cleavers as the pinnacle of American adult life, but just as some people (perhaps including myself and my wife) shouldn't have children because they enjoy living their lives a certain way, some shouldn't get married because their personalities (at the moment at least) do not easily endure compromise.
 

Delmar

Patron Saint of SMACK
LIFETIME MEMBER
Hall of Fame
Oh yes I do.
So when you were "a Christian" you thought sex was dirty? That explains a lot, I guess.
You didn't even bother trying to disagree, which says something.
I believe sex is a gift from God given to man to ensure the propagation of man.
What I do know is that you don't get to bully or intimidate people anymore now that you're not a mod...and as usual, you add absolutely nothing to any conversation except a lot of pointless, worthless blather.
I don't remember ever being called a bully :idunno:
P.S. Love the avatar.
:up:
 

Granite

New member
Hall of Fame
So when you were "a Christian" you thought sex was dirty?

No, but plenty here do. There's a borderline pathologic attitude towards human sexuality expressed by many Christians here that is incredibly unhealthy. And that's putting it mildly.

I believe sex is a gift from God given to man to ensure the propagation of man.

That's nice.
 

Nitro

New member
The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for December 9th, 2011 12:51 PM


toldailytopic: Shacking up. Is it wise for a couple to live together prior to marriage?






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No.
They can try to be like a married couple but their type of commitment doesn't demand it. It's a mock marriage that doesn't have great success partly because both parties are going in with the wrong mind set. They already don't plan on spending their lives together. The shack up couple doesn't think their partner is of enough value to marry. They aren't willing to lay down their lives for the other. Shack ups do not have a lasting commitment. It's ME first. As long as I am happy I will stay. Most people that marry first have made a commitment to each other before friends, family and God that they are in it for life. While most people that shack up are testing compatibility, most people that marry first, work to build compatibility. Once the shack ups get married, it's hard for them to loose the old mind set they had while living together. This is why most shack ups end in break ups and there is a higher divorce rate among those that shacked up prior to their marriage.
 
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