Who are your friends?

Your friends matter!  Do you have friends who help strengthen your marriage, or who sabotage it?  By no means am I saying all your friends have to have great marriages - that's a bit unrealistic and means you aren't helping anyone - but are the key people in your life marriage builders?

In life, have you ever seen the social circle domino effect?  If in a group of friends some start moving toward marriage, it makes it easier for others to, and it starts to be come the norm.  Or having kids.  Or buying houses.  Or taking trips to Disney...

It is because of this simple truth:
In our life expectations;
our neighbors become our norm.  

It is not a conscious process, but the standard of living which surrounds us seeps into who we are and becomes what we measure ourselves against.  This isn't really good or bad, it is how life is as social beings.  However, if what we are surrounded by isn't working, we have to be careful not to get sucked in.

Much of our world works against a great marriage.  It works against accepting and affirming the positive differences between men and women - then taking this understanding to help build better marriages.  Instead, the norm is to tear down the other gender - belittling men, writing off romantic women - seeking the weakness instead of encouraging the strengths.  Find other people who love and value their spouse and their marriage!  

In your closest circles, let the norm be a little abnormal.  This is a great thing about church.  By gathering together with people who are seeking God, you are surrounded by a higher probability marriage lovers.  You can find within a healthy church men and women who are trying to push through the knowledge of our differences to healthy marriages based on a more complete knowledge.  A good norm to have!