Marriage: Are You Ever Ready?

Are you ever really ready for marriage? If so, how do you know when?
Youth today are not being raised as much in preparation for marriage as they used to be in times past. There are too many other factors to worry about- mainly those including education and jobs. Parents want their children today to be able to sustain their own, successful job- by going to school and getting a good education- because times simply are a lot harder. It's harder to buy a house, and it's much harder to sustain a family-- that's saying if your marriage even works out!
The fact is, times are just more difficult. The job market constantly becomes more and more competitive, schools are becoming more expensive and thus it's harder to get a quality education for the typical (poor) college-aged adult.
So with all of these odds against us... why even marry, right?
Within the first month of marriage, couples will see many new challenges and issues already surface. Such things we discussed in class, included: Who's family will we spend more time with? How do we adjust our finances to include sustain the both of us? When will we want to bring children into our family?
Studies show that the romantic trend between a couple skyrockets after they are married. Once they then have their first child, it actually declines, and then it levels out meeting in the middle for basically the majority of the relationship.

There are many factors that thus effect the relationship, all influencing a positive or negative trend- even both surfacing at different times.

I personally believe that you're never really ready for marriage. All of these facts put the odds against us- how are we expected to create and sustain a stable relationship in a world like this? In a world where morals are failing, and divorce and cohabitation are becoming more and more common?

Our marriage is never going to be perfect- and I believe that in order to have a marriage, you have to realize that. My all time favorite quote from this past LDS general conference, was by Elder Robert D. Hales. He said, "We marry POTENTIAL, not PERFECTION."
So many young adults today are feeling pressured into having the perfect relationship with that perfect person. The reality is... we're all human! None of us are perfect.
Despite the many odds against us, we can all make marriage work, and we should. We have the capacity to work hard towards any relationship, and make it work if we really want it to. There are going to be many hard times ahead that will come into our marriages- we simply can't just hunker down and avoid them. They're apart of life. But that's what makes a relationship interesting and fun- you're committing yourself to one person, showing your companionship throughout life's challenges. You both are willing to stick by each other's side and help each other along the entire way.
Besides, life is more fun when you have someone to enjoy it with, right? And when you can develop such an intimate relationship with one person, how much more fun is that?