Pathway to Eternal Marriage

        In today's world, young adults are no longer considering things like marriage, becoming a parent, or finsishing school as a social milestone. Young adults are now focused on their own personal advancement and their independence. I, myself am guilty of this. For the longest time, all I wanted was to be married. This past year, I have changed. I am starting to focus on my own happiness and my own progression. But, I am not doing this to avoid getting married or trying to be selfish. I think it is extremely important for us to take time for ourselves and discover what we were meant to do in this life. We need to learn how to be okay on our own.
       
        Within in the church, there is such a great pressure to get married and start a family right away. When this wasn't happening for me, I became angry at the world, at God, at my seemingly failure of being good enough to get married. This is such a toxic way of thinking and it can completely destroy our faith, our confidence, and our desire to get married. Everyone expected me to get married right after high school, people would literally place bets on how many months would go by before I got engaged. When this wasn't happening, I felt like I wasn't good enough for a man. But like I said, I am finally taking time for myself and working on becoming a better me.
       
        Like the first chapter in Successful Marriages and Families, the Lord's prophets have always proclaimed how important marriage and family is to God's plan. I KNOW this is true. It is CENTRAL to the plan. I just wish there was a healthier way to go about the importance of this sacred ordinance. I hope that by taking time to work on ourselves, grow in our faith, while still understanding the importance of marriage, I think it would make young adults excited to date again, excited to get married, and excited to start a family with our eternal companion.