Family Law

The Key to Successful Marriages

By J. Benjamin Stevens

Leah Ward Sears, who served as a family court judge for 26 years and is the recently retired chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, recently wrote an interesting editorial in the Atlanta Journal Constitution about what it takes to make a lasting marriage. She said that more than anything else, it's plain old commitment that matters most:

There is a lot of conventional wisdom on the key to a successful marriage. Marry someone you love. Marry someone who makes you laugh. Marry someone who can put up with you. Marry someone who is financially secure. Marry someone with similar values, common interests and a good education. All are good advice. But after years of thinking about and studying this country's divorce epidemic, I now believe that the key to most successful marriages is when the couple is more committed to the health and longevity of the marriage than to each other. That way, during those times when they can't stand each other — and those times surely will come, as no one is perfect— they have something to fall back on and remain committed to.

This is great advice, because people in any relationship will inevitably mess up somehow and upset the other person. Commitment to the relationship gives the couple time to work through those difficulties for a more lasting marriage.

Source:  "Key to Successful Marriage" by Gideon Alper, published at his Atlanta Divorce Law Blog.

Full post as published by SC Family Law Blog on February 18, 2010 (boomark / email).