MOMO?

Single girl over here...Glad I'm not the only one thinking this.


But what makes a successful marriage IYO? As many aspects of one's relationship/marriage are private (as they should be) as an outsider you don't really get to determine what is and isn't a successful marriage. All you see is what the couple portrays to the outside world (sometimes very consciously). Many a marraige has stood the test of time have been tried by the very things you've said you wouldn't put up with.

Money Of My Own.

I have.

Not always, but I just prefer a man who comes from a similar background as my own.

I agree, and I've said this several times before on here, so this is nothing new. I think it's important to use your brain before you let your emotions get involved, and that takes time in most cases. A lot of people let their decisions follow their emotions, when it's safer the other way around. I just think it's better to "think" first and "feel" later. It just comes down to the right choices eventually bringing the right emotions. Just like the outcome of your whole life, love is a choice, not an emotion.

I never said it wasn't a bad idea. Like I said before, choose someone who agrees with you.

I'm sure there are several things, but since you asked for my opinion, I think compatibility, and long-term maintenance are two of them. And more likely than not, the main things.

Compatibility because if you're not walking in the same direction in life, you'll end up going separate ways, and you don't have to be living in separate homes, divorced or whatever for that to happen. I'm not saying that as being exactly alike, but having similar if not the same values is what I'm saying.

Maintenance, because a relationship needs to be maintained in order for it to continue to last/work. Christian or not. IMO, everything needs to be maintained in order for it to survive/work, whether it's your home, a business, a car, your pets, etc. You name it, it needs to be maintained.

Please do not give advice on marriage if you have not been there!! Take your own advice and leave it to the married folk to do that.

I agree with you, which is why (if you are single) to take advice from someone with more experience than you have. Like I said before that applies to pretty much everything in life. At least I think it does. I just don't think people should jump right into something as serious as marriage without getting advice from someone who's in a healthy marriage.

eta: I said it in the post you just quoted.

Just be aware that there are plenty of people (including some at GC and including some who take the Bible quite seriously) who are in very healthy marriages who would not give you some of the advice you've tauted here. Doesn't make anyone right or wrong, just different, as in so many aspects of life.

Do what works for you, but never assume it's the way that works for everyone else.

I dunno, MC. I think it's important for careers or anything you've never had experience in to talk to successful people in that particular area, if you want to accomplish what they've accomplished.

I didn't say it isn't. What I said is don't expect to get the same advice from all those successful people, because people are different, and what works for someone might not work for someone else. There's not always one right answer, as evidence by the successfully married people in this thread who have disagreed with some of the advice you've talked about.

Gather all the opinions you want from all the successful people/couples you want, then make up your own mind about what bits of advice you've gotten might be helpful to you and what bits advice aren't so much.

Has anyone ever put that into the Snoop Dogg Shizzinator? If not, they really need to.

Yes but they are not the ones on here giving the advice... you are!

<applause> Even what defines a "successful" marriage varies greatly. I see people who are VERY happy and think their marriages are successes, and they are, for them. I see fewer people who are in the kind of marriage that I would be happy in. Even when I get discouraged and think that everybody who is single at my age is just too damaged to have a successful relationship, I see a couple who gives me hope again...lol.

Yep there are many "Godly people" who think MOMO is appropriate.

WWJD? Jesus would do MOMO...or joint...or MOMO...or joint...ahhhhhh, it depends on the circumstances. :)

Actually, when people like cheerfulgreek make this about religious doctrine, it becomes about more than what works for you as a couple/family. The premise of bringing in religious doctrine is that you are doing what is pleasing in a religious sense. Within this context, if what is pleasing in a religious sense is subjective, what is the point of citing religious text? Is the religious text saying nothing more than to pray and talk to your spouse to determine the best outcome for you and yours? If so, then, okay. If that is not why religion was brought into the discussion and the "whatever works for you" is just said to avoid religious debate, womp womp.

The "whatever works for you" goes without saying but some posts in this thread on all sides of the issue have a tone that what works for us doesn't have to apply to everyone else...but if you're wise/religiously saved/smart/etc. you'll do it the way we're doing it. LOL.

http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/24.gifhttp://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/24.gifhttp://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/24.gif We had...not one, but two pastors like this when I was growing up in MN. One of them got another woman pregnant. There is a greekchat member on here who's known me since I was about 8 or 9 years old (she doesn't post as much anymore). When I lived in the Twin Cities, she and I went to the same church, and we also had lunch together a few years back because I hadn't seen her since I was a kid.

She left the church along with a lot of members when she found out what happened. I was just a kid at the time, but apparently an altercation took place outside of the church after service one day between him, his wife and the other woman. I wasn't there when it happened but my dad was a deacon and my mom was an usher in the church at the time, so they knew all about it. I just remember them and my God parents talking about it. That was the first pastor. He left and started his own church and a lot of the younger members followed him. I was in high school when we got a new pastor. I thought he was cool. I used to fall asleep in church until he showed up, he was that good. Come to find out two years later while I was away at college, he cheated on his wife with another woman, and got her pregnant. They got rid of him. By that time, my parents had already gone to another church. I stopped going because I just didn't feel comfortable with some dude preaching what he isn't following himself. Man, it was drama during that time.

When I had lunch with LG (GC member) a few years back, although she doesn't go to that church anymore, she said there's still some mess going on there. But this was back in 2007. I'm not sure if that pastor is still there or not.

This is too funny. This mess happens all the time in the church. And that woman who was sitting in front at your church, I'll bet she wasn't just sitting there just to be doing it. She knew exactly what she was doing, I wasn't born yesterday. Dude liked what he saw, got weak, and look what happened. Yeah, he may be a pastor, but he's still a human being. He's got to resist temptation just like the next married man/woman. The church I go to now, our pastor is cool...so far LOL.:D

ETA: One more thing I forgot to mention. I remember the pastor who got the woman pregnant, he used to get on these crazy off topic sermons about how he's tired of watching married men in the church checking out the women as they walk down the aisle to give, and how a man should love his wife as he loves his own body LOL! Yet, this trifling dude was screwing around on his wife and had the mistress pregnant...dude please.