Those who are immature think it is more blessed to receive than it is to give (Acts 20:35). The immature person is not interested in giving; he is interested in receiving! Such people care little about what the other person wants. They want what they want, and they want it now! Why can’t we all see that the only way any of us will ever be truly happy is to learn how to bring happiness to others? Husbands and wives who have largely forgotten their own wishes are the ones who really enjoy life together. Study the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-13 and learn how to be happy. But most of us follow the Beatitudes rather poorly, don’t we?

The immature are also characterized by poor standards of judgment or evaluation. A little child is unhappy if his playmate has a bigger piece of pie than he does. A teenager is unhappy if his pal has a later model car. Immature people set poor goals for themselves. They choose as their ideal persons those who are anything but ideal. Instead of a godly woman like Dorcas, as their ideal many teenage girls choose the moral degenerates of Hollywood, who travel over several continents together without benefit of wedlock. Instead of choosing for a life’s companion one who is manly by Christ’s standards, many immature youngsters choose the one who is “cute,” or “popular,” or who has a convertible, and so on and on we could go. Some women, after marriage, instead of appreciating a godly, hard-working faithful Christian husband, become dissatisfied because he is not rich and handsome like some men they read about in the magazines. Some men, instead of appreciating the godly, hard-working, faithful Christian wife, become dissatisfied because she is not as “glamorous” (“cheap” is a much better word here) as the latest movie starlet to arrive on the Hollywood scene.

Husband and wives, don’t be immature. No marriage can be happy with even one immature partner — much less with two such partners. Don’t go around sour, irritable, unhappy, and grouchy because things don’t go just the way you want them to go. Learn to make today right! If you do, every day will be right. Determine that you are going to be happy today. Even beyond that, determine that you are going to be happy — and have a good disposition, not grouchy or complaining — right now! Make a practice of this. It will mean so much to your marriage. It will mean much to you. It will mean much to your husband or wife.

Thomas B. Warren, Taken from Marriage Is For Those Who Love God And One Another