Developing Selflessness Through Marriage

From the moment we are born, we—as human beings—have a life that is centered around ourselves. As a parent, you have a responsibility to provide for your children. You need to feed, clothe, shelter, and most importantly, nurture and rear up your children in righteousness. As a child, your job is to be taken care of. Sure you help your parents by doing your assigned chores around the house, but in all reality, you are the center of attention in the relationship, and the one on the receiving end.

Then, we kids grow up. We move out of the house, go to college and learn how to live on our own. This chapter in our life opens our eyes to what the world is really all about. And that tough reality is: the world does not revolve around you. Nobody is going to wake you up in the mornings for class, or buy your groceries for you, and no one is going to wash your sheets when they start to smell. We learn, as young adults, that we must fend for ourselves, and figure out how to live. This is a great opportunity to learn about yourself, others and the world around you. Although, on the contrary, living on your own for an extended period of time, inevitably leads us to be perhaps too comfortable in our surroundings, because we have established a lifestyle that is pleasing and fitting for ourselves only.

We are not meant to be alone, we are meant to be partnered off. The institution of marriage provides us a laboratory of learning. We no longer think in a self-centered manner. Your turns to ours.

Our money,

our home,

our decisions,

our life.

Being married teaches us to be selfless, to put others above ourselves, and provides us with the best opportunities to serve. In a marriage, you no longer think of yourselves, but the well-being of your spouse first and foremost . If a couple loves each other enough and can continually practice such selflessness, there will be an equal amount of concern for the other, and therefore, someone to care as much about them, as they did about themselves before they were married. Marriage is an irreplaceable opportunity for man and woman to perfect and complement one another. To help each other fulfill their divine destiny, and become more like the sons and daughters their Heavenly Father intended them to be.