What is a good marriage?

Does it result from being wealthy. Many wives disagree. They believe love, contentment, tolerance and even long-suffering make a good marriage . But then how can couples achieve contentment? Below are the opinions of wives who responded to our survey on this controversy.

Mrs. Abdulmaliq
A good marriage is one that is devoid of trouble, calamity, and misunderstanding. It is not necessarily about rich couples but at least the two must complement each other. The two would be a good example to the community where they reside and work.
Another feature of a good marriage is having good in-laws. Many homes would have experienced the happiest marriage but their in-laws would not allow it to happen.

The mentality of many people today especially Africans is that for a good marriage to come to being, you must be wealthy, have a fleet of cars in your garage, have houses or have a male child or give birth to children. Being rich is an additional ingredient that spurs the marriage forward; also being fruitful is vital in a marriage but in case it doesn’t happen when we expect it, it does not make the marriage an unsuccessful one.
So a good marriage is one in which happiness is present, and there’s room for understanding between the husband and the wife.

Mrs. Solesi
Whether in Christianity , Islam or the traditional religion, a good marriage is marrying the right person. Aside this, it is laying a good, strong and reliable foundation for your home. Among the factors which constitute a good marriage is first, accepting whoever your spouse is with truth; loving him/her. The love is not only for material benefit, or physical benefit, but accepting him/her for who he/she is.

Marriage is not loving the perfect person but loving the imperfect person perfectly.
If anyone desires a happy home/marriage, he/she must accept the spouse, overlooking his/her pasts, short-comings because we all have our pasts. Love has no conditions, it is either you love the person or you don’t love him/her. No sitting on the fence.
A good marriage must be devoid of vain repetitions of your spouse’s past or secrets.
Finally, for a marriage to be good, the husband must be able to defend his family.
In other words, he must be able to stand for his family, must be there whenever he is needed.

Mrs Ogudu
A good marriage is ordained by God. It is a union between a man and a woman that is directed and controlled by God. It means living in love, respect, unity and also to reproduce.

Onunyere. G
A good marriage is marrying the will of God for you and every other thing falls under it. When you are patient enough with God, he will definitely lead you to the right person He has prepared and preserved just for your sake.
There is chaos in many homes today and husbands beat up their wives; wives are not faithful to their husbands and husbands do not cater for their families. The husband refuses to recognize his wife or does not respect his wife.
So the definition of a good marriage is you marrying God’s right standard.

Mrs. Alagbe
A good marriage is the one built on the word of God. In other words it means tolerance and understanding. The Bible says for this reason shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife and the two shall become one.
Therefore, a good marriage is the one that is united in all ramifications.

Mrs. Bose Joseph
A good marriage to my own understanding and experience can be defined as one that is built on a solid foundation with the fear of God in both partners.
Misunderstanding, notwithstanding, a good marriage must involve communication which is the key to a healthy marriage.

Helen
A good marriage is devoid of crisis; although you may not be too rich, but at least there will be peace of mind. You will be satisfied with whatsoever you are blessed with.
Secondly you must have good relations and in-laws who will not jeopardize your lives. An adage says it is easy to marry a bad wife/husband but having a bad in-law is a terrible mistake to ever make.
When you have good in-laws, you don’t have any problem. Nobody controls your husband for you, and nobody monitors what you do.
There are some in-laws who tell their son and his family to live in his family house. In such a situation, the wife has neither freedom nor privacy. She is being monitored and later starts facing problems in her matrimonial home.

Mrs Jonnes
What makes a good marriage is love, understanding and tolerance.
A good marriage is one in which there is trust and love built on long suffering, because the couple are two different individuals coming together as a new family. There would be a time of little misunderstanding as none of the parties is perfect therefore it is not something you can understand all of a sudden.
Secondly, a good marriage is one which started well with the word of God; one in which God the father, the son and the Holy Spirit was invited to take control.
A good marriage does not only mean having everything in the world.
Happiness, I think is the utmost in marriage. When there is love, there would be happiness, there will be trust.

Elkanna Abbey
It is a pity today that many people think a happy marriage is as a result of being wealthy.
Watch it, not all wealthy couples have happy marriages; many of them are only patching it in to avoid divorce.
A good marriage is based on solid preparation.It has a good foundation of true love, unlike what people do today, taking infatuation for love.
When you take infatuation for true love, there would always be problems. In this instance, a partner would wake one morning and tell the other party they are tired of the whole thing just like that without a definite or genuine reason.
So a good marriage is always built on trust, temperance, and submissiveness of one to another.

Mrs. Okoosi
A good marriage results when a man or a woman marries based on sincere love, not for material reasons. It results from a courtship that is strictly based on solid platform and when you endure and tolerate one another for a better tomorrow.
A good marriage is not only when you give birth to many children or when you are wealthy. No. Having rest of mind with your spouse and contentment are important.
Therefore from my own perspective; joy, love, long suffering and holiness make a good family. When God is present in your marriage, nothing is lacking and no intruder can tamper with your joy.