MARRIAGE & AN EQUAL PARTNERSHIP

Within "The Family: A Proclamation to the World", we learn about the importance of marriage and how marriage is an equal partnership between man and woman. These two principles were meant for us to be taught. We learn that we are to be together in marriage and in partnership.

The Importance of Marriage
Like most important relationships, marriage is an important one. One above others. We learn many things about man and woman and the important role they have as a husband and a wife through many different readings. In Genesis 2:24, we learn that a man must "leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife", so that he and his wife can "be one flesh." LDS President Spencer W. Kimball said in his book "The Miracle of Forgiveness", "The successful marriage depends in large measure upon the preparation made in approaching it... One cannot pick the ripe, rich, luscious fruit from a tree that was never planted, nurtured, nor pruned."
In 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau, determined that "Most young people no longer associate marriage with the transition to adulthood" and "a notable rise in the average age at which people first marry." In the year 2003, the average man was 27.1 years old the first time he got married and the average woman was 25.3 the first time she got married. This was 13 years ago. I'm sure that the average age for men and women getting married the first time has most likely risen since then.
Brother Merrill J. and Sister Marilyn S. Bateman teach us that, we live in a consumer culture. A culture where "people have learned to discard everything from paper plates to spouses" causing many to be understandably fearful of marriage. There is a fear of divorce, fear of being an inadequate spouse, fear of financial needs, and a fear of lifestyle changes that may compound sufficiently the need for singles to look forward to getting married.

An Equal Partnership
Having a marriage where one person thinks that they are better than everyone else, is not only harmful to the emotions of the other person, but it is also harmful to the marriage itself. This is why we learn in The Family: A Proclamation to the World, that we are equal in our marriage, our partnership, and in our roles as parents. Even though we all aspire to be of "one heart and one mind" (Moses 7:18) this doesn't mean that we are identical. We learn from the scriptures that one gender does not have greater eternal possibility than the other. (Moses 2:26-27; 2 Nephi 26: 28, 33) We need to think of all that we believe to be true about the the equality, both here and in Zion, of men and
women in God's kingdom: equal in blessings; equal in power, intelligence, wisdom, dignity, respect, giving counsel, giving consent, agency, value, potential, authority, exalted fullness, virtue, spirituality, and spiritual gifts; equal in temporal thing in Zion; and equal heirs with Christ.

Elder Earl C. Tingey, then serving as a member of the Seventy, said in a CES fireside, "You must not misunderstand what the Lord meant when Adam was told he was to have a helpmeet. A helpmeet is a companion suited to or equal to us. We walk side by side with a helpmeet, not one before or behind the other. A helpmeet results in an absolute equal partnership between a husband and a wife. Eve was to be equal to Adam as a husband and wife are to be equal to each other." From the beginning, we have been meant to be together. To be willing to work with one another, to counsel with one another and to be with one another. It has never been meant to be one before the other, but one with another.

I know that because of the things that we are taught in The Family: A Proclamation to the World, we can truly become and have all that the Father has in store for each of us. We can be and are a blessing to our spouse, our children, and our families. I know that through the Lord all things are possible and we can gain all things through Him.