Preparing for Marriage

I have learned a lot in the 3 and a half years of my young marriage. I have some things to share with you that I have learned since being married and I hope that you can learn this BEFORE you say "I do". There's no need to sit around twiddling your fingers or texting all day, waiting for "Mr. Perfect" to come along. Be pro-active!! http://fineartamerica.com/images-medium/waiting-tahirih-goffic.jpg

(photo from Fine Art America)

Here are a few practical ways you can prepare yourself now for marriage and help make the transition a little bit easier:

1. Have personal DAILY devotional/prayer/worship time with God. I cannot stress this enough! This is the most important one! If you do nothing else in preparation for marriage you might get by with grace from God. It really is the foundation of all other things.
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2. Make dinner for your family at least once per week. You plan, you make the list, you cook (having help if necessary), you serve, you help clean-up (choose to cook on a day it's already your turn to do dishes).

3. Have personal DAILY devotional/prayer/worship time with God. I cannot stress this enough!
4. Make a Meal Plan and stick to it. Start with one week at a time, once per month. Perhaps you can do this with your mother so that you are not taking over as much as you are assisting, helping, and learning. HERE you can print out templates to help you get started, as well as get ideas from Money Saving Mom. HERE is an article on menu planning made simple from a High and Noble Calling. She also has a bunch of postings HERE about menu planning. Check them out!

5. Have personal DAILY devotional/prayer/worship time with God. I cannot stress this enough!
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6. If you have any type of income, make a budget and stick to it. Ask your parents or a responsible adult to help keep you accountable. It can be simple (i.e. savings, spending, and donating) or detailed (i.e. gas, clothes, savings, donating, car expenses, entertainment, gifts, etc.). When you get married, a budget will be vital in your relationship. Knowing now how to do this will REALLY help you after marriage! Dave Ramsey has great material for young adults/teens called Generation Change. THIS is good stuff!! HERE is an article written about young adults choosing to be different than their parents on finances. HERE is an article about how teens CAN become millonaires.
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7. Have personal DAILY devotional/prayer/worship time with God. I cannot stress this enough!
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8. Keep up with chores your parents ask of you. Help your parents keep the kind of home you want to have. Trust me, you will not become a clean homemaker on your wedding day unless you are already in the habit of it before you get married.

9. Have personal DAILY devotional/prayer/worship time with God. I cannot stress this enough!
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10. Help to make the shopping list for food and household items, then help shop for them. The sooner you learn to get good deals the better. Very few go into a marriage making $75,000 or more per year. Even if you did, there's no point in paying waaaaay more than an item is worth! Save a few bucks and then use it for a date night--now that's being financially frugal!

11. Have personal DAILY devotional/prayer/worship time with God. I cannot stress this enough!
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12. Entertain company. I am not talking about reciting your recently learned piano lesson. When your parents or you have company over, plan a meal, snack, and/or drinks to have ready to offer them. Serve them food and/or drinks, then clean up their plates when they are done. I once knew a woman who would plan the meal, serve the food, offer drinks and refills, and clean up the dinner plates when her parents would have company over. The adults never had to leave the table, couch, or break conversation. She was practicing being a hostess. To this day, she is one of the most amazing hostesses I've met! She is gracious, smooth, lays out a beautiful setting, polite, and almost a bit subtle.

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1 Peter 4:9 "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling."

3 John 1:8 "We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth."

Like I said before, you will not become a great cook, a gentle hostess, a frugal shopper, a spiritually strong and wise help meet, or any other great idea you have that will happen in your marriage just because you said "I do". It takes work. Some things will take less work & other things will take more work, but you can be a beautiful help meet, as God intended, if you put forth your heart and efforts. Whether you realize it or not, a true man & a man ready for marriage will look at your attributes beyond how you look or dress.
 
Let him be more attracted to HOW you will make a great help meet to him and not so much on how you LOOK to be a good woman at his side.
 
Practice helps, but God makes perfect!!