Can a Marriage Last Forever?

Today was a long day, but a good one. Today, my brother got married. Now, I don't know a whole lot about traditional wedding ceremonies apart from what I've seen on TV and in movies, and this was the first LDS wedding I remember going to, so I'm not truly familiar with either kind of ceremony, but I know them both well enough to recognize a few major differences, including the use of the phrase "for time and all eternity" instead of "as long as you both shall live" or "until death do you part."

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, marriages are meant to last forever. Not just for the rest of our lives. Not just for a couple of decades, if we stay in love that long. Forever. Cynically, I wonder how many relationships could actually last that long. When people spend to much time together, they tend to get on each other's nerves. In a relationship between any two people, no matter how perfect those people may seem, they are each bound to find things about each other that annoy them.

Granted, it takes a lot more than annoyance to cause a relationship to break up, but if those minor grievances aren't dealt with, they can become major problems. Given an eternity to discover and endure each of a person's faults, I almost wonder how any relationship could survive that long.

Fortunately, there are ways to prevent pet peeves from driving you and your partner apart. Most importantly, you have to communicate. If something about your spouse bothers you, you have to let them know. It's possible that they don't even know they're doing it. Also, you have to be willing to change your habits and to be patient with your partner as they try to change theirs. For a relationship to survive one lifetime, let alone an eternity, both partners have to be trying to make it work.

Theoretically, if two people love each other enough to talk honestly with each other and to each make changes in their lives to make their spouse happy, I imagine that it is possible for a marriage to last forever. The trick is that both partners have to be willing to work to overcome bad habits and to exercise patience and tolerance, which (thankfully) many true Christians already do. Actually, the more I think about it, the more possible it looks. It won't be easy. The best things in life are rarely easy. But it's doable. And if two people love each other enough to be patient with their spouse's faults and try to overcome their own, I truly think they could have a happy marriage that lasts forever.