Why I’m Getting Married at 18

“Why would you want to get married so young?” “Why are you getting married so quickly?” “He’s not going to be able to support you….” “You don’t know what you are doing.”  “You’re too young to know what love is.”

Although I have never had people tell me this to my face, I feel it when they look at me.  I tell them excitedly, “I’m getting married in a few months!” and they say, “… how old are you?” and I reply, “Eighteen.” And thats when I can start feeling the judgements. So why am I getting married so young, and in just a few months?  Keep reading and I will answer that for you.

A Little About Us

I met my soon to be husband about two and a half years ago.  We started dating a year and eight months ago.  As soon as we started out our relationship, we decided not to kiss until our wedding day.  My fiance also decided not to tell me he loved me until he proposed which was really hard… but totally worth the wait.  Even though he knew I was “the one” early in the relationship (he started saving for my ring two months after we started dating!), he wanted to prevent heart break.

I knew pretty early in the relationship that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life.  He loves Christ, he loves me, he’s sweet, has nice hair, and works hard to bring in a paycheck.  He is everything I prayed for. Okay… I’ll get to the point!

What Love Really is

People may think we are too young and don’t know what love really is.  But in reality, we know what love is more than most married people in this world.  Why?  Because we are Christians, we learned what love is by believing that Jesus died on the cross for us to save us from our sins.  He suffered and died because He loved us.  We love because He loves us.

“But Christ shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

-Romans 5:8

“We love because He first loved us.”

-1 John 4:19

Why so Young and so Quick?

But why do we want to get married so young and so quickly?  I’m not pregnant… let me just let that out.  Actually, we have been talking about marriage and planning our wedding for some time now.  It wasn’t like he proposed and I was super surprised.  I was surprised but in a different way.  I knew it was coming.  I knew I would probably be married by the end of this year and I was right!

We are getting married young because… why not?  We know God wants us to be together to bring glory to Him so why would we wait another 4+ years until we are done with college?  The Bible says that “he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord” (Proverbs 18:22).”  So we are going to wait to get married because we know God wants us to be together but we are going to ignore that so we can get through college alone and test the waters of other relationships?  I don’t think so.

We know we can work better together.  We are both doing online school and my fiance works from home and owns his own online business.  We can encourage each other better when we are always together.  Together we can learn and work.  Together we can witness to others.  Together we can glorify God more efficiently.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

-Genesis 2:24

Christ and His Bride

Marriage between a Christian man and woman is showing the loving relationship between Christ and His church (Christians).  The church is referred to as “The Bride of Christ”.  When we get married, we are showing others Christ’s love.  In Revelation, we see the picture of Christ coming together again at the rapture with His bride, the church.

“Let us rejoice and exalt and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready…”

-Revelation 19:7

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…”

-Ephesians 5:25

What is Our Marriage Going to be Like?

Obviously I can’t answer the above question until we are married, but I can tell you it will be glorious and I can’t wait to marry the love of my life.  “Erin, you are so dumb.  Marriage is hard and there will be times where you want to rip his head off.  You won’t want to be married soon enough.  You will regret it.”  I realize that marriage is hard… trust me, I know.  But I also know we will be able to make it through because we have Christ in the center of our relationship, guiding us every step of the way.

I know we are going to have a good marriage and I can’t wait to see it all work out.  Starting out will be tough as we will both be doing school and working hard to make money so we can pay rent.  But it will also be a great adventure.  In two short months I get to experience marriage and I am ecstatic!