UK National Marriage Week 2019: Recipe for a Healthy Marriage
Michaela Hyde is UK National Marriage Week coordinator and Project Director for Marriage Foundation. Follow her on Twitter @MichaelaHyde.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll enjoy a happily-ever-after story when two people, desperately in love, decide they want to spend the rest of their lives together and get married. I’m quite a romantic and get teary-eyed at all the best rom-coms! However, the reality of everyday life isn’t like Hollywood, it’s certainly not all Disney with singing wildlife and fairy godmothers. The fictional Hollywood fairy stories could never depict the journey of being married for ten, twenty, thirty or more years – this would make even the epic Lord of the Rings seem brief! Yet the wedding day is just the beginning of the adventure of the rest of their lives together – otherwise known as marriage!
Like all adventures, marriage has its inevitable ups and downs (sometimes very significant ups and downs too). Being prepared is important and in many churches, couples attend marriage preparation sessions to help them to navigate the ‘ever-after’ and learn how to adapt to being a unit. I myself attended marriage preparation sessions with my husband and would recommend this to everyone. Whilst this is a great start for couples, the investment into marriage shouldn’t stop at the preparation stage; yet, as time goes by, couples can begin to neglect their marriage, or take it for granted. Sometimes, it sadly becomes a mediocre relationship. It may surprise you to know that a far more common cause for divorce is couples drifting apart rather than the big arguments that are misleadingly portrayed in TV dramas and films as the main reason for a marriage to end. Regularly investing into a marriage is crucial for its ‘ever-after’ success.
The UK National Marriage Week is an annual awareness campaign for couples to join in with and this year, it’s the 13th – 19th May. It’s a signpost to remind us of the importance of looking after our marriages. Our theme for 2019 is ‘Recipe for a Healthy Marriage’. Every good recipe works because it has the right ingredients and it’s the same with marriage! The marriage ingredients we have chosen to focus on are commitment, kindness, communication, intimacy, friendship and forgiveness.
There are lots of fun ways that couples can get involved during Marriage Week, such as creating one of our delicious recipes found on our website, www.marriage-week.org.uk. There are also easy-to-follow resources for places of worship to use to celebrate marriage within their communities. Being aware that the subject of marriage can feel exclusive, we’ve produced a range of resources including a community ‘Wedding Feast’ in which all can be invited to celebrate that marriage is good for couples, children and society.
Setting up the Marriage Week prayer room is a wonderful way for people of all ages and situations to be part of the week. The Couples Evening provides a great way of connecting with and blessing the couples that you’re in contact with through community groups such as toddler groups, homework clubs and other activities that you may already run on a regular basis within your faith community. Take a look at the website for more ideas, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and share your Marriage Week stories using #marriageweek. There is also a brand new podcast called The M Word which is available through the Marriage Week website as well as iTunes and Spotify.
Marriage Week has all the right ingredients for the real and lasting ‘ever-after’ that takes us beyond the fanciful fairy tales and into the adventure and richness of healthy relationships. We hope that you’ll join in the celebration!
This is a version of an article that first appeared on the Church Support Hub website in April 2019.
