by Kim Bonnalie

Created on: January 29, 2009

A marriage "surviving" and being healthy are insanely different. Could a marriage "survive" without the couple being in love, I suppose it could, but could it be healthy? There is no way. Being a newly wed myself (having been graced by God to marry my husband just shy of 6 months ago) I cannot imagine a marriage without love. I cannot imagine spending my nights, my dreams, my most intimate and embarrassing moments with anyone whom I didn't love. To openly share my worst qualities, to be free, I could not do this without love. A marriage could not live to be what it is meant to be without love.

A marriage is a bond. A promise between two people to cherish one another, to stand by on another and to love each other whole-heartedly through anything and everything that they encounter either together or by themselves in life. A marriage is a security that they will always be there, that you are never alone, and that you will always have support. When you decide to marry someone it should be because while you would "survive" without them, you don't want to. Committing to a marriage is a promise to your partner and yourself that nothing will ever come along that the two of you together cannot overcome. These things cannot happen without love. You cannot stand by someone side through the wonderful times and the horrible without loving them. You cannot go through sickness and poverty without loving one another.

The entire basis of a marriage is love. While it may seem that some couples marriage stands alone on need, or expectation, somewhere deep down there is love. It may be a little different from someone else's' love they share in their marriage, but it is there. Like golden embers that when the world is warm no one may see but when the cold night sets in and all else fails, they keep you warm and safe from the world outside. Somewhere deep inside every one of us we long for a soul mate. We long to find someone who can be with us forever, and share our lives with us, never fearing of judgment or desertion. This is what marriage does for us is gives us strength and fulfills our needs for companionship and love. It is what a marriage is meant to do.

There are many different types of love, just as there are many different types of people. This makes each and every marriage different from the next. While a marriage can "survive" without love, it would never be what a marriage is supposed to be. It couldn't possibly.

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