So I want to marry my boyfriend. Not right now, but I don’t want to wait forever. I am growing and maturing into a young responsible woman, but many people don’t agree with my decisions and I am appalled that my responsible decision is shunned before people even know my views, so please, read my essay:
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“You’re too young!” “You have your whole life ahead of you!” “You don’t even know what love is!” These are some of the words thrown in my face every time I mention my plan for marriage. They say that I cannot be young and have the perfect marriage.
So what exactly IS the perfect marriage? A fairy tale romance? No, not exactly. the perfect marriage consists of two people who LOVE each other. People marry for horrible reasons now-a-days - for sex, money and other unholy reasons and more and more people’s relationships seem to be failing. How do these people know any more about what love is than I do?
Christian author, Dave Meurer, says “A great marriage is not when the ‘perfect couple’ come together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.” There’s no such thing as a perfect couple, and marriage isn’t about finding the stereotypical Mr. Right, it is about finding Mr. Right-For-You. Someone who you can be yourself around. Someone who makes you happy, pushes you towards your best and gives you that “on top of the world” feeling every single day- and only someone you LOVE can do that.
In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says, “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” How can someone say I don’t know what love is?! My GOD has it written for me right in the holy word of the Bible! And NOWHERE in the Bible does it say “You must be over the age of twenty five to feel what love is.” NO! It is always there, no matter if you’re seventeen or fifty four.
In Ephesians, it says “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church,” and it says, “Wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” A marriage is a gift! An opportunity to have someone to hold onto, love, and trust. Someone to guide us on the right path, anda husband or wife is the most meaningful relationship you should ever have. That’s why instead of giving Adam a hundred friends when he was lonely, God made for him ONE wife! God made marriage to give us a life-long companion, and never ONCE did he include an age limit on this special love.
Marriage is a beautiful thing. The book of Genesis says, “A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.” It’s beautiful! In being married, you are getting a life-long friend, to love you no matter what, through thick and thin, or at least that’s how it should be- and it’s a BEAUTIFUL thing! God does NOT say only couples who are of a certain age may feel this beautiful feeling.
I know that marriage is a big responsibility, but I know God will prepare me well, and I will work through it! Half of the meaning in a relationship is putting in the effort to make it strong and blossoming. Most people don’t understand this, they just give up and walk away from their problems. That’s why a lot of relationships are failing. I will NOT be like those people. I will love my husband with all that I am, and I see ABSOLUTELY no reason why anyone would disagree with my decision to love.
I believe that at eighteen, I am mature and smart enough to make my own decisions Why are we, as young couples, shunned anyways? Because society said so? A few decades ago, marrying at eighteen or even younger was completely socially acceptable. Everyone knew who they wanted to be with and remained FAITHFUL and committed to them. Half of the people who judge me married at around that age themselves or have never been married at all! I have no desire to follow today’s society’s trends. I just want to be able to truly be as one and be committed with the love of my life on this Earth. And to grow together as a couple. A married couple. At one. How could anyone deny me that right? I don’t want to marry “for fun” or whatever reasons you could probably assume, I just want a chance to give my special someone all the love in the world… as their spouse.
Some people say to wait. That I’ve got my whole life ahead of me. My whole entire life to get married- and frankly, I don’t even know! How AM I to know? Our clocks are ticking. We don’t live forever on this Earth and who knows how much longer we’ve got. And I know for sure I want to be with my loving boyfriend for the rest of my life, as a married couple, so why deny me my right to? I want to be as one right beside him, now and forever, through better and worse times. To be there for him through it all. To spend my life cherishing and appreciating my spouse- my beautiful gift from God.
I’m bound to make mistakes and the journey is long and hard, but two is better than one. If God wanted people to journey it alone, he wouldn’t have gave Adam his wife, Eve. I’d rather have my wonderful husband by my side as I travel down this road God has prepared for me. He is one of the reasons that make living my life on Earth worth it.
I’m not sure of a lot of things, but I know what love is, and that is EXACTLY what I feel for my boyfriend. They say you cannot put a price tag on love, so why should there be an age requirement on it either? I will be just as much of a loving wife at eighteen as I would at twenty five, and I don’t want to waste any more of my precious days without my boyfriend as my spouse. Love is forever, and though I’m young, I know that this kind of love is exactly what I want…. and exactly what I’ve dreamed of, and I am fully enjoying this gift God has given me.
What do you think?
xoxo,
Liberty :)
