Husband and Wife: A Partnership

Stewards in Equal Partnership

“President Hunter said: “The Lord intended that the wife be a companion equal and necessary in full partnership. For a man to operate independent of or without regard to the feelings and counsel of his wife in governing the family is to exercise unrighteous dominion.” Early in my marriage the differences between my husband and I became more noticeable and I found myself thinking about how to become equal partners. I believe that men and women were created to have individual differences. No one person is the same. It was important for me to realize in my marriage that my husband and I were raised differently by our families. I know it is my calling to create and maintain an equal partnership in my marriage. President Boyd K. Packer explained, “We serve where called by those who preside over us. In the home it is a partnership with husband and wife equally yoked together, sharing in decisions, always working together.” We must participate in a partnership of willingly giving, because without each other we cannot receive Celestial glory.  We are expected to come together and be united as husband and wife because that is the will of the Lord.

I also remind myself frequently in my own marriage that anything worth accomplishing takes much work, sacrifice, effort, time, and practice. Developing an equal partnership in marriage is created as you progress through life together. I feel you are constantly working on building unity. We are expected to come together for our own personal growth as well. Individual well-being is a benefit to equal partnership. I have felt that the more I grow individually the more I am able to contribute to my marriage and our unity becomes even stronger. I feel that as long as husband and wife are centered on the counsel of the gospel of Jesus Christ both will be able to more easily come together as one, which will create blissful relationships.

Best Friends for Life: Husband and Wife

Husband and wife need to become equal partners to prepare for parenthood. President James E. Faust taught that, “Every father is to his family a patriarch and every mother a matriarch as coequals in their distinctive family roles.” Together husband and wife, mother and father as proclaimed by Elder L. Tom Perry, “organize and plan the affairs of the family jointly as they move forward.” Better parenting is one benefit to becoming equal partners. “Parents with more relationship equality are more likely to work together as a team in parenting their children. They are more likely to support each other and form a united from when disciplining their children.”