Missing the Mark

I was talking to my friend Ashley (name changed) today and an important conversation came up. She was concerned about her relationship with a certain someone and whether or not they should get married. She was concerned because they had different future plans. He wants to go to law school in the fall and she wants to stay at Utah State University to finish her degree. I had this advice to give her:

8:29pmAshley

yeah

but we have talked about marriage. its the timing that doesn't work

8:30pmBill

what timing exactly?

8:31pm

Ashley

with him going to law school in the fall and me needing to finish here

that's long distance...

8:32pmBill

yeah it is... but can i be perfectly honest with you?

8:32pm

Ashley

yes please

8:33pmBill

when my ex-girlfriend and i talked about marriage she would bring up things she worried about working out like health insurance, school money yatta yatta

and while those things are important

and should be discussed

its completely missing the mark

like the jews did when it came to the gospel

in my opinion, you shouldn't let those worldly things be the deciding factor of marriage.

you need to decide to get married first and THEN you worry about those things

love is the most important thing in life

it takes priority

you figure that out

then you can figure the rest out and God will help you with that

thats my opinion

8:35pm

Ashley

wow bill. i think that's the best advice i've heard about this in a long time.

thank you so much

8:36pmBill

no problem

makes sense then?

8:37pm

Ashley

yeah definitely. that makes a lot of sense. thank you

8:38pmBill

its just a lesson i learned from my previous relationship

it bugged me that she was so concerned about all those little things that it blocked our progress

and i learned that love and that type of relationship was by far the most important thing in life

and so i came up with that for my future reference

8:40pm

That pretty much hits it home! You could probably apply this to just plain dating as well. :-)