Marriage isn't perfect, But:

For a man marriage might save your life.

Why?

Because the best part of being married (if you are married to a sensible woman who has your back) is that she is brave enough to tell you when you are full of s---. This is likely the most valuable tool a man has to not do something foolish that might harm or end his life or the life of his family.

If I look back at who I was at 25 if I hadn't married at age 26 I might not have lived to see 30. This is very clear to me now. Why?

Because I was like many men in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was definitely "Terminal Macho".

What does that mean?

It means most men then were very conflicted because that's what men were needed by the world to be then and many today still are very conflicted.

IF you are going to ask boys to become men and die for their families like has been asked of all men for thousands of years already you need men to be basically conflicted enough so that when asked to die for their families they might consider it a relief to die for their families rather than face themselves and their families for a lifetime.

So, marriage and family gives a man a way to be less conflicted as a man and a good enough reason to try to stay alive for something real.

Some people say that meeting the right person to be married to is a really big deal. However, in the course of a lifetime often a man will meet around 100 women or more that would work as married partners for that man. I'm speaking in general here of course.

I have one friend who is in his middle 70s who wishes he was with a mate but some people might not be suited for various reasons to be in a long term relationship either.

But, the majority of people are more suited to a long term or longer term relationship.

My present wife and I are grateful every single day that we are together. Is our relationship perfect?

No relationship is. However, if you have suffered enough through life you begin to see what is important in a relationship. First of all, a relationship has to be practical for both people. They both have to decide where they are going to live together on earth (what place or places). This is really important. Because if one person wants to live in New York City and the other wants to live in Los Angeles this isn't going to work at all (unless they have an apartment in New York City and a home in Los Angeles and they drive or fly between those locations periodically and they can afford to financially do this.

Even in my present relationship I wanted to live in Mt. Shasta but my present wife is too much of a suburban or city girl to do that with. However, she is willing to spend up to one month a year up there now she realizes how amazing it can be especially in the summers up there. Before covid I would spend 1 week in 5 up in Mt. Shasta and she was okay with this even though I was usually going alone. But now, I have a son-in-law from the mountains of Europe who misses the Alps and so often he travels up there especially to ski with me so that's good too.

So, the point is that being married to a good friend who shares some of your interests that you can live in in the same place or places with each other is important in any relationship for it to work.

Both romantic love and sex come and go but friendship and common survival interests stay throughout a marriage if it is a good one. Family stays important throughout your life and as your parents die and your aunts and uncles die it's good to have someone who is like a relative and parent to your children along the way to depend upon. Life can be good but you have to engineer it that way or you have nothing in the end.

So, figure it out so you don't have to be alone unless you prefer to be alone.

By God's Grace