BellaOnline Forums Relationships Marriage Describe what marriage means to you...

We talk about marriage, we discuss, complain, dissect, tear down and repair it. As partners in this relationship we are the experts! <img src="/images/graemlins/lovers.gif" alt="" />

So, tell me, what does marriage mean to you personally and why? How would you describe the institution called "marriage" to someone from another planet? <img src="/images/graemlins/beamedup.gif" alt="" />

Marriage is the unltimate "sharing".

It is sharing your love, bodies, goals, trials, money (or lack of <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />), heartaches, triumphs, and failures.

It is being willing to give up something because your spouse needs something else. I always think of the story "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry. (If any of you are somehow miraculously unfamiliar with this story, here's a TEXT of it online.)

This is what marriage means to me.

If I were describing marriage to someone from another planet, I would say something entirely different from what I would say to the question of what marriage means to me, because I don't think I define marriage the way the majority of "Earthlings" do. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I think marriage is two people making a public declaration of something that is, for them, an eternal truth. It's a statement to the world that you have found your soulmate, that you love him (or her) to the very core of your being, and are forever willing to do whatever is required of you to build a life with him, to support him in his endeavors, to share in his hopes and dreams, to encourage him, to protect him, and to be his sanctuary from the world.

The important thing in my definition is that this all comes about naturally. I don't believe that this kind of commitment can be a choice. It must be the natural result of feeling this deeply about another person.

Sharing and security are a couple ones.

In 3 words.

Love, sharing and Security.

Perfect answer.