This goes for women as well as men: leave Mama's influence and control over your life when you join yourself to your mate. The Bible says there's a leaving and then there's a cleaving. This means, as husband and wife, you're drawn together apart from the relationship from whence you've come!

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
(Gen 2:24)

One of the most important things about really loving your mate in a covenant relationship is leaving your family. Some people never get around to leaving. The apron strings are still tied, and Mama is still helping her little child make decisions. When you leave home to get married, it's time to cut the apron strings.

This goes for women as well as men: leave Mama's influence and control over your life when you join yourself to your mate. The Bible says there's a leaving and then there's a cleaving. This means, as husband and wife, you're drawn together apart from the relationship from whence you've come!

There's a sign in the window of a jewelry ship in Los Angeles that typifies the attitude of society in some circles today. It's contrary to what I'm sharing with you. The sign says, "Wedding rings for rent."

This is not for people who intend to cleave to their mates. They simply view marriage like this: "If it doesn't work out, then I'll just say goodbye and that'll be it."

A husband and wife are to cleave to each other. If you'll cleave, it won't be as easy to leave!

One Flesh
"...And they shall become one flesh" (Gen. 2:24). In marriage, God has called two to become one, to be united in attitude, mind, vision, and direction.

This is why singles need to come to a unity of mind and heart before they marry. Many people simply come to a unity in an attitude of the physical relationship, but they never come to a unity in their mind, vision, direction, intention, and purpose in life.

Many people marry and later discover that the person they married has a different plan for life. They say, "I didn't know that's what he (or she) wanted to do." Yet, I'm wondering, "How did they ever get married without coming to that place of unity?"

It takes time to understand what another person plans to do with his or her life. It usually doesn't come in three weeks or even in three months.

When a pilot makes plans to land on the runway of an airport, he aligns himself with the runway a long time before he touches down. He checks on a perfect directional that will touch the plane down on a strategic spot where he can stop the aircraft so it won't go off the end of the runway.

How much more important it is in our lives that we align ourselves and get on target before we touch down in a marriage relationship - that we align ourselves in unity one with another.

If you can't come to a place of unity in the dating relationship, then you should say, "Let's postpone the wedding." The postponement is much better that the divorce of a relationship.
Take a few more months.

Many marriages would have been saved if the bride and groom had waited until they came to a unity and worked things out before the wedding.

Source: Building Stronger Marriages by Billy Joe Daugherty.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers