10 Reasonable Biblical Expectations for Marriage (here is first two of them)

10 Reasonable Biblical Expectations for Marriage

From A Celebration of Sex: A Christian Couple's Manual by Dr. Douglas E. Rosenau (Nashville, Thomas Nelson Publishers:1994)

1. Each of us will have a partner and soul mate offering unconditional love, understanding, and support. We will be best friends.

• The LORD GOD said, "It is not good that man should be alone" (Gen. 2:18 NKJV)
• Husbands, ... dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife. ... All of you be of one mind (1 Peter 3:7-8 NKJV)
• Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. ... No one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it.... And the two will become one flesh (Eph. 5:28-29 NIV)
• A friend loves at all times,
  and a brother [mate] is born for adversity...
  but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Prov. 17:17; 18:24 NIV)
• Love is patient.... It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.... It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres (1 Cor. 13:4-5, 7 NIV)

2. Neither of us will expect the other to meet all needs or take sole responsibility for personal happiness. We will give each other space to breathe.

• Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13 NKJV)
• Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load (Gal. 6:4-5 NIV)