Perspectives on Marriage

I feel like the marriages that my parents and grandparents have are very similar to the marriage that I want. My parents met in college and waited until after college to get married. I feel that I do not know if  I will meet the person that I will marry in college or when I will meet the person. However, I feel like the most important thing is that I make sure the person that I marry is the person that I truly want to be with. My parents dated for 4 years until they got married. I feel like it is important to wait and make sure that you are truly in love with the person that you want to marry. I feel like I have the same values that both my parents and my grandparents have and want in a relationship. However, I feel that my parents and grandparents both married when they were reasonably young and in their early 20s. I feel that I may need to wait a little longer than that to get married. I feel that it is extremely important to show love for the person that you want to marry. I feel that I would want my relationship to differ from my parents or my grandparents in not many ways. However, I feel that I may want my husband and I to share jobs around the house not specifically because men should do one specific thing and women should do another. I feel that my grandparents sometimes have very specific gender stereotypes in their relationships that I do not want to be a part of mine.

I feel that stories of ancient marriage make marriage to be very different than it is today. Marriage used to be viewed as a way to make kids and for a woman to survive. Women needed men to help them by working to make a living. Men were supposed to be the providers for families in ancient times. Women were supposed to be the ones who cleaned and cared for the family. In Genesis, it is written that men and women were put together "to be fruitful and multiply". The importance of children is also prevalent in the story of Sarah and Abraham. Often in ancient cultures, prostitutes were common. Men often had sex with numerous prostitutes before they were married. However, Jewish men were always discouraged from using prostitutes and having sex with numerous different women recreationally.