Does Your Spouse Validate You?

Last week we introduced you to the 5 categories of marriage that emerged from research done by James Murray of Oxford University. This week we will amplify the first of his five categories: the Validating Couple.

The Validating Couple: according to professor Murray, will experience the best marriage and quality of life. This couple’s ability to remain calm reduces the number of explosive emotional flare ups that could shatter their relationship. They “validate”, or support the value, of each other by building one another up and spending time together. It rings of Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up … that it may give grace to those who hear.” This couple is intentional about displaying their love for one another through words and actions. ”Let us not love with mere words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18).

The Validating Couple looks for ways to create shared experiences rather than pursuing individual activities. While each has dreams, goals, and ambitions, these are now in submission to the greater good of the marriage and family. Obviously they will spend some time apart to enjoy personal hobbies, but at the core of their marriage is a priority commitment to pursuing togetherness, not individuality. Murray says: “The most stable relationships are those which take a more old-fashioned view and see marriage as mainly about companionship.”

Ultimately this is the ideal relationship, it is a true joining together of two hearts as one, each partner caring deeply for the other and prioritizing the life, well-being, health, and joy of the couple, above the individual. This loving character jumps out of John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends <spouse>;” and explains why this couple is often seen as two eternal lovebirds because they best exemplify the Biblical idea of a “one flesh” marriage.