王盈方醫師瘋狂之旅 Dr Yvonne Wang's Blabberings

I think I was originally on the right track in my thinking (that is, my thinking before noticing the marriage vs age issue). After some thinking and discussions w/ others, I’ve came back to my original thinking about the issue:

Love is such a powerful expression of feeling and commitment between two people; it is not to be regarded casually. Love is not something that should be forced upon us prematurely, ie. we are not to manipulate others into loving us.

 
I should look for someone who can make me “submit” to him. Now, this is a term to be careful about (non-Christians might not understand it, or only notice the “sexist” sounding sentences and ignore the overall meaning):

 
God designed the act of submission in Genesis. In the beginning, since there was no sin, there was no authority for man to obey except God’s authority. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin entered the world and then authority was needed. Therefore, God established the authority needed to enforce the laws of the land and also to provide us with the protection we need. First, we need to submit to God, which is the only way we can truly obey Him (James 1:21 and James 4:7). In 1 Corinthians 11:2-3, we find that the husband is to submit to Christ as Christ did to God. Then the verse says that the wife should follow his example and submit to her husband. Submission is a natural response to loving leadership. When a husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25-33), then submission is a natural response from a wife to her husband. Submission is a two-way street. The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. The “submit” in Ephesians 5:21 is the same word as in 5:22. Believers are to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

So in layman’s terms, in the search for a marriage partner, I should look for someone who’s able to show his love and care in such a way that I feel like compromising some of my career & life plans, and spontaneously feel like showing the same amount of love and care back to him. And if I can’t find such a person, I’d rather not marry.