So… 
Fluttershy & Rarity; the elements of Kindness and Generosity.
Don’t forget patience and tolerance...
“The MAJORITY of marriages fail. . .”
Okay. . .but in the nest paragraph:
“Of all the people who get married, only three in ten remain in healthy, happy marriages. . .”
Three out of ten is now a majority?
Must be common core math. . .
It’s actually ONE basic trait—Putting your spouse’s needs before your own.
2) Don't write these types of articles for publication in a scholarly journal. No one reads them. Especially not girls.
May be apocryphal, but I remember reading that a long time ago.
My wife is a hoarder.
Basically, I’ve been hoarded.
IMHO - successful marriage is recognizing you are part of something greater than yourself, and greater than the sum of its parts. You are part of a marriage, and a family - both immediate (children) but also in-laws, cousins, etc....
It helps greatly also to believe that your marriage, as man and wife, are ordained and blessed by God - again, something greater than the sum of the parts.
KINDNESS and GENEROSITY
Has worked in our marriage for years. The wife is flush with both, which drove her to take me on as a reclamation project.
Money and sex?
Husband, love your wife.
Wife, respect your husband.
Simple, biblical wisdom.
A man never knows what true happiness is until he is married. Unfortunately, by then it’s already too late!
So…
Fluttershy & Rarity; the elements of Kindness and Generosity.
The majority of first time marriages succeed.
The statistics listed here are skewed by multiple divorcers.
If you are marrying for the first time to someone else who is marrying for the first time, your marriage is likely to last.
To all FReeper men... Go home and hug your wife as hard as you can.
I would give everything I own for 1 minute to be able to hug my wife again.
This implies, accurately and maybe more easily accepted, that the failures (defined as broadly as this study, i.e. to include couples who stay together hating and/or abusing one or each other) are caused by a tendency toward selfishness and being inconsiderate. Movie example: The War of the Roses, a fairly accurate portrayal of a marriage between two iconic irreligious self obsessed liberals (all the main characters being portrayed by actors who were and are the same).
The two words to keep a marriage going....”Yes, Dear.”
In addition to having both husband and wife being believers in God - particularly the husband loving his wife as “Christ loved His church - I would also add making sure you LIKE each other as friends.
Many married couples I’ve been around say they love each other, but they don’t seem to like each other very much. I’m speaking from my own parent’s example. They are still married, but they don’t seem to enjoy each other’s company very much and are cross and rude to each other. They stayed married solely out of commitment - which I respect and appreciate - but it saddens me that I don’t believe they ever were friends.
Liking each other and becoming each other’s best friend is a big plus when it comes to happiness in marriage. My wife and I just celebrated our 36th anniversary and we enjoy each other’s company as much or,more than we ever did.
My advice to young people - know God, follow His commands regarding sexual purity, marital commitment, and loving/respecting each other - but make sure you LIKE each other before you ever get to the point of marriage.
One side note, I’ve heard many times from well meaning Christian advisors, and I am a Christian as well, that when the apostle Paul tells husbands to love their wives and wives to respect their husbands, somehow that means that wives don’t have to love their husbands and that husbands don’t have to respect their wives. I believe that is a distortion of what Paul was trying to say.
Paul was tying to say that real, Godly marital love is impossible without both husband and wife respecting and loving each the other. Does Christ only “love” His church, yet has no respect for it? Are we to only “respect Christ” and yet not love Him as well? Is genuine love possible without respect? I don’t think so.
I do think my parents love each other, but they really don’t have much respect for each other, so while they are still married, I don’t think they have much joy.
Jesus was unsurprisingly about 2000 years ahead of the “scientists” when he indicated, as evidenced by Matthew 7:12, to do other what you would have them do to you.
Husbands, be KIND to your wives this evening! Wives, be GENEROUS to your husbands! My feeling is that America has experienced a wake-up call with the recent elections...the time is nigh for we who know America’s greatness to come to the fore and LEAD us into a bright, new future! May Almighty God let it be so.