What does marriage mean to you?

Question

This is probably a common question, but think about it. Not only do the homosexual rights issues bring this topic back into importance, but it is an important question to know your own answer to. Whether you're married, engaged, dating, single, divorced, widowed or at any other point in your life, your opinion helps make up what the general meaning of marriage is to us as a people.

It doesn't matter what your opinion is, your are always entitled to it, I am merely looking for a broad range of answers, some I'll agree with some I won't. Just back up your opinion with details and if you want, life experiences.

Thanks in advance for quenching my curiousity.

I just want to quickly add to my question, how does a person's sexuality fit into marriage? Can you marry someone without wanting to have sex with them?

Answer 1

Marriage is a bond (legal and spiritual) between two people.

I'll be engaged soon (I'm heterosexual). I am 100% for same-sex marriage, just did a huge paper on it for my Sociology class.

Answer 2

I'm not a big believer in marriage.

People say "you're a bastard child" if you're born out of wedlock. Just because your parents aren't married doesn't mean they love eachother less than a married couple.

People rush into marriage, I think if you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, why rush - you have your whole lives!

I dont believe in God, but I dont see how people can say "you gotta get married before god" If God was really all knowing all seeing and the rest. He'd know If two people were meant to be, therefore wouldn't need them to come before him to prove it to him.

Also the fight about - you're less likely to break up if you're married. B.S!! The fact is, some couples are meant to be and will work it through, some wont work it through - marriage or not.

Marriage isn't going to stop an alcoholic husband beating his wife? Its not going to make a cheating wife tell her husband and try and fix things.

And you say, til death do us part. You can't promise the rest of your life to anyone. People change, even if you think you've found your soulmate, there's absolutely NO guarantee they'll be the same person in 10 years. And I dont promise things I can't keep.

Love is love, you dont need a piece of paper to show it.

Answer 3

Marriage to me means a lifelong commitment. Unfortunately it doesn't always work out that way. Too many young people take the marriage route much too quickly. Too many today are in lust not love. While sex plays an important role in marriage, it's not the most important thing. Communication, I think, is much more important. So many mariages are lost because of a lack of it. Courtesy, a love that means more than sex, commitment, and just plain old caring are some of the key ingreidents for a successful marriage. IMHO.

Answer 4

My marriage is a public, legal commitment to my husband, the one I love. We are great partners, and marriage makes it easy to share our life together. We don't need it to be wholly committed to each other, but it comes with benefits and security. Really, we had no reason not to.

I am all for marriage equality. People building a life together need legal status to protect it, and it does not hurt anyone.

My parents divorced when I was a kid and it was the best thing my Mom ever did for us. My father was an abusive tyrant and it was the only healthy choice to make. So I'll be the first to say that divorce is sometimes the best thing all around. Marriage should not be treated lightly, but if a situation turns bad, people need an out.

Answer 5

I think people get married now a days with the best intention not even realizing that there intentions to have a happy life can't be based on social status. I wish more people could marry for love rather then money. And i feel that sex is part of love. If you can't intimately be with someone for a few hours in bed how are we to spend our lives together

Answer 6

I like this question. I think marriage results when you find someone you love who is strong enough to compliment your life (please note the key word:compliment. It is not two halves making a whole, but instead two whole individuals that are so much more). I think the key words are love, faith, trust, respect, sacrifice, friendship, and last but not least devotion. It is something that you have to work at everyday, and something that is not suppose to be easily thrown away. Too often today, people look at marriage as extended dating... in which they jump in too soon and/or quit too easily. Its a promise of forever even though a lot of people don't recognize it as that. Are you thinking of popping the question??? If so, good luck!

Answer 7

To me it was working together towards certain goals in life. Wanting and needing the same things. Showing love and respect no matter what a persons view is,...
I am ready for divorce because it is not there anymore.( married 33 years)

Answer 8

To me it means finding the one person that you relish (not just want) spending everyday for the rest of your life with - the ulitimate in companionship. It means someone to share good and bad with, it means support no matter what. It means someone to laugh and cry with. It means having someone who understands you and you them, someone to temper your moods when required. It means someone to say bless you when you sneeze and mean it!!!
I am 42 and I never thought I would meet such a person, however I was supremely lucky and found the woman who fit my personal criteria and we married 16 months ago. even with the highs and lows it has been the best year of my life and I looks forward to many more.

Answer 9

I didn't bother reading the details of the quetsion, but I think marriage to me is a commitment of both partners to commit to one another as husband and wife or wife to wife or husband to husband for as long as they live. They don't break the vows of marriage. In the eyes of God however, only a marriage between a man and a woman count.

Answer 10

You are virgin until married, and it is the joining of MAN and WOMAN, for LIFE, under God...(no divorce) it is TRUE love.......not just some fools rush in thing. MARRIAGE IS A SACRED THING....Its seems as if it is not these days though...