[disneysteve]

We will celebrate our 16th anniversary next month, first and only marriage for each of us.

Over the years, I've had a number of reasonably close friends and relatives who got divorced. In virtually every case, I can honestly say that I predicted the marriages wouldn't last before the weddings even occurred. The couples were simply incompatible and I haven't got a clue why they were getting married in the first place. I, and pretty much everyone else around, would ask ourselves that very question. But love is blind, as they say, and the couple involved just barreled on blindly to the altar, only to be followed soon after by divorce proceedings.

I can't think of any couple close to me where I was shocked when the couple split. No instances of both people always being together, communicating well, sharing common interests and respecting each other.

Obviously, marriage takes some work, some compromise, some give and take, but I think the big problem is that too many people simply don't think things through before committing to marriage. They are sure the other person will "change", whatever that means, or that they will learn to accept their differences. Guess what folks. It ain't gonna happen. If you can't get along before marriage, you won't get along after marriage either. If her habits annoy you when you're dating, they will drive you crazy when you are together all the time. If he's lazy and never does anything to help when he's going out with you, he isn't suddenly going to become Mr. Wonderful when you put a ring on his finger.

It isn't that too many marriages end in divorce. It is that too many flawed relationships end in marriage.