Ten Christian couples told me what they wish they'd known before they got married

This Valentine's Day writer Shakira Peronet spoke to ten Christian couples and shares their hard-earned wisdom. 

I’ve always thought; everyone loves marriage. And I get it, what’s not to love? The joining together of two people, two lives, literally two becoming one, it’s great and absolutely worthy of celebration! But sometimes I have thought as Christians… maybe we love it a little too much. What I mean by this is - sometimes we can pursue marriage with more zeal than our relationship with God. And often dating and marriage is celebrated just as much (or dare I say more) than someone becoming a Christian.

Biblically it’s the single person that stays unmarried who gets the shout out from the pulpit, not the married couples. The Bible is countercultural, praising the individual who finds their joy, their delight in God - Psalm 37:4. I ask us all, do we share the same sentiments? I think we can always count on Paul to keep it real, and in 1 Corinthians 7 he does exactly that! He said: "If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if his passions are too strong and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married. But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin—this man also does the right thing. So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does better." 1 Corinthians 7: 36-38.