When speaking of marriage, the Bible says that in marriage we leave our parents, are united to the one we marry, and become one flesh.¹  Many marriages fail because we fail to understand this truth.

As we grow older, we leave our parents' home, and begin a new adventure in life.  Quite often, we desire to share this adventure with another, as husband and wife.  It's exciting, with all the possibilities that lie ahead.  But we must be diligent, God's ideal for marriage is one husband and one wife for life.²

As we begin this adventure, and we desire to share it with another, what we need to do is ask God to prepare us to be a good husband or wife.  It's also important that you, and the one you desire to marry, have the same dream in life; want the same things (two hearts, one dream.)  When we don't, heartache can follow.  It's also very important that a husband and wife be of the same religious faith; for a Christian, a Christian is only to marry another Christian.³ 

In marriage, it's important that we have a husband or wife who loves the Lord above all else, and loves us the way we want to be loved by them.  Physical attraction is very important, as is emotional attraction.  Women want to feel safe with their husbands and men desire respect.  Having one dream is also very important.

The following is from the Bible as to marriage.  If we cannot see ourselves, and the one we desire to marry in these verses, then it would not be God's ideal that we marry this person.  Here's what is written:

"...submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.  For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church.  He is the Savior of his body, the church.  As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.  For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.  He gave up His life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word.  He did this to present her to Himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish.  Instead, she will be holy and without fault.  In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies.  For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself.  No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.  And we are members of His body.  As the Scriptures say, "A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one."  This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.  So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."⁴

Bible References:

¹ (Genesis 2:24)

² (Matthew 19:3-6)

³ (1 Corinthians 7:39; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

⁴ (Ephesians 5:21-33   NLT)