Meanings of Love and Styles of Cohabitation

This week in class we learned about love and how there are various meanings of love. 

Storge: love between parent and child
Philia: love that exists between friends; brotherly love
Eros: love between a man and a woman; sexual, emotional, passion or romance
Agape:  love beyond what you feel about them. 

While discussing these various meanings of love, my teacher asked which one should we have towards our spouse. The majority of the class responded all of them. All of these types of love allow us to grow closer to our to our companion. They are important to keep a marriage strong and also to have a healthy marriage.

This week we also talked a lot about dating and the importance of dating many people. Obviously dating has a different meaning for people. But in this case dating is going out with someone and getting to know them, this does not include sexual intercourse. 

I really liked something my teacher mentioned in class, he said "Dating is not just about testing but developing your skills." Many believe that when we date someone it is just about seeing if we are compatible with the individual, to see if we like their qualities and so on. But while we are dating we are trying to polish our own qualities and even develop new qualities like patience, charity, humility and so on.


We also discussed the reason's why individuals tend to cohabit rather than get married. There are various myths out there. People believe that by cohabiting they are reducing the risk of divorce because they are going to "test the waters" first. But in reality, and various studies have shown this, those who cohabit before getting married have 3x's likely of getting divorced when they do marry! I wonder if people were informed about this that they would opt for marriage rather than just cohabit.Not only do these couples have higher risk of divorce but they also have higher rates of violence and abuse.


There are 4 styles of Cohabitation:


1. Precursor to marriage: these are couples that are already engaged and have definite plans of marriage.
2. Coresidential  daters: they dislike living the single life and opted to move with someone even though they were uncertain about how long term the relationship will be.
3. Trial cohabitors: they intend at some point to marry but are not fully committed to their current partner to expect cohabitation to end up in marriage.
4. Alternative to marriage: individuals who are more committed to partner than to marriage.

It was interesting to learn about these various topics this week, it once again made me realize the importance of marriage and doing things in the proper order. Many of the times we wonder why have so much heartache in life but we do not realize that its because we are not following the plan that has been set for us. I have a great testimony about marriage and the importance it plays in an individuals life and future generations as well. I know that marriage is part of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christs plan for us, if we do things in the proper order we will have joy and happiness for all eternity.