Marriages are hard work, with great returns for those who are willing to put forth the required effort. However, for many people, it seems that they enter marriage without the understanding of the work involved in maintaining healthy, happy relationships. They may not even intend to work at it at all, assuming that everything will be just perfect after the wedding. How wrong they are! There are many things that can kill a marriage, as the staggering divorce rates are proving every day. The following list describes the top ten marriage killers, or the serial killers of any relationship.

1) Lack of communication is one of the biggest marriage killers because without communication between the spouses, it is impossible to solve any other problems that come up.

2) Boredom in the relationship will lead to its eventual death. Try to keep things fun and exciting by continuing to learn and grow together.

3) Selfishness is the third killer of marriage. When we marry, we are giving ourselves to another person and should be doing so with love. Love causes us to put another's needs and desires ahead of our own.

4) Money problems are a huge stress on any marriage. People who are stressed are typically very unhappy, leading to fights and petty complaints that will kill the marriage.

5) Marriages in which one partner is overly controlling will destroy the marriage because one day, their husband or wife will wake up to the fact that they have lost a big piece of themselves and they will almost always leave when they do.

6) One or both partners suffering the effects of low self-esteem can also bring a marriage to a sad end. This causes doubts and accusations to fly about, often leaving hurt feelings and angry people in their wake.

7) Any form of abuse can kill a marriage. In fact, this is the one thing that should kill a marriage. It is unacceptable in a family and should never be tolerated even occasionally.

8) Jealousy can bring an end to marriage for much the same reason that low self-esteem can. The two are almost always found together and cause a lack of trust and intense scrutiny on the spouse.

9) A person who lies regularly is nobody's idea of a great spouse. Eventually, the lies will get to be too much for the honest partner to deal with and he or she will usually give up on the marriage entirely.

10) Lack of physical relations can kill a marriage. Sex should never be withheld from one another for lengthy periods of time. There is no reason for this. Humans have physical needs that must be met during marriage and neglecting your partner's is unfair and will kill the relationship.

These marriage killers should be avoided at all costs. If you find that one or more have already infected your marriage, do whatever is necessary to rid the relationship of it before further harm is done. A healthy and happy marriage is one of life's greatest joys and you can have one by avoiding these top ten things that kill marriages.

Learn more about this author, Victoria Tiegert.
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