Marriage Covenant

Kevin Corinth
Last updated February 23, 2016

Whereas my God-given purpose is Love, and whereas I believe that the best way for me to fulfill
this purpose is to love you actively and consciously, unconditionally as long as I live, and to
make this commitment the foremost priority in my life, I hereby enter into a marriage
covenant with you, Elizabeth. Before stating the covenant explicitly, it is important to define
important terms, and also, to state the beliefs which have led me to make the decision to enter
into this covenant.

I. Definitions
The following words are defined due to their importance in this covenant as well as their
unobvious or unconventional definitions.
God: Creator of universe
Soul: Non-worldly entity with free will, created and given purpose by God
Love: a Souls purposed response to other Souls, which is known to the Soul but still is a choice
love: to embody Love through physical (i.e., worldly) means
commit: to intentionally increase the likelihood of continuing an action for the sake of
continuing that action
Note that these definitions imply that my God-given purpose as a Soul is to Love, and therefore
my purpose as a human is to love.

II. Beliefs
The following beliefs constitute my motivation for entering into the marriage covenant. They are
referenced throughout the covenant to justify its components.
B.1: Unconditional acts of love are stronger than conditional acts of love.
B.2: Making loving you actively and consciously without condition my foremost priority best
fulfills my purpose of Love.
B.3: Accepting your love is a stronger act of love than not accepting your love, and doing so
actively is a stronger act of love than doing so passively.
B.4: Being family with someone (through their recognition of you, and/or your recognition of
them, as family) confers a type of love on all parties that fosters unconditional love.

B.5: By loving an individuals family member or friend, one loves that individual.
B.6: Supporting, understanding and challenging can be means of love.
B.7: Appreciating someone can be love and can foster love, and expressing love can make love
stronger.
B.8: The extent to which sex can express love depends on its exclusivity over time. Longer
periods of exclusivity connote more love; indefinite exclusivity best connotes love.
B.9: Sex can stimulate a biological bond between partners.
B.10: Culturally, extramarital sex is viewed to represent and embody diminished love for ones
spouse. Moreover, both of us are affected by this view.
B.11: Committing to an act of love is how love can approach unconditionality.

III. Covenant
C.1: I promise to unconditionally love you actively and consciously as my foremost
priority for as long as I live.1 This promise is sacred. [B.1, B.2]
Conditional on best supporting C.1, I will also:
C.2: Actively accept your love in all the ways that you enact it. [B.3]
C.3: Become family2 with you, which entails the following: [B.4, B.5]

1
2

Recognize you as family.

Encourage you to recognize me as family.
Encourage my family members to recognize you as family in your own right.
Encourage you to recognize my family members as family in their own right.
Encourage your family members to recognize me as family in my own right.
Recognize your family members as family in their own right.
Encourage my family members to recognize your family members as family in their own
right.
Encourage your family members to recognize my family members as family in their own
right.

As implied by this statement, this love is unconditional on your life status, that is, whether you are alive or dead.
Family is left undefined but includes all aspects that can and cannot be articulated in my personal conception of the word.

C.4: Strive to love your friends. [B.5]

C.5: Actively support you on a day-to-day basis in the following ways: [B.6]

Sensitively respond to your daily needs.

Help you achieve your goals, from assisting in simple chores to offering support of your
long term career objectives to helping you to love others, and celebrate their
accomplishment with you.
Be present in your emotions (feel them with you), retain faith in you through all emotions
regardless of their length and intensity, and support you in overcoming any negative
consequences of your emotions.
Support and challenge you in your understanding of worldly and non-worldly things.

C.6: Partner with you in raising children whom we shall love unconditionally as members of our
family. [B.1, B.4, B.5]
C.7: Appreciate you and your love, and strive to consistently express this appreciation to you.
[B.7]
C.8: Exclusively engage in the most intimate acts of a physical relationship together in
recognition and expression of unconditional love. Do so knowing the long-term cultural and
biological implications. [B.8, B.9, B.10]
C.9: Frequently assess whether C.2 through C.8 best support C.1, and update, modify or add to
C.2 through C.9 as necessary. Update the wording of C.1 when doing so clarifies its intent.
C.10: Commit to C.1, and commit to C.2 through C.9 as long as they support C.1. Adopt the
following commitment devices: [B.11]

Wear and actively use a marriage ring as a commitment device that symbolizes my
marriage covenant.
Share a last name of our choosing that reminds me of my marriage covenant.
Have a wedding ceremony which involves our family and friends and that expresses
our covenant in various ways.
Become and remain a single financial entity.
Go on a honeymoon immediately after wedding in which we reflect on our marriage.
Become and remain legally married.
Celebrate each mooniversary of our wedding on 13th of every month by giving you a
small gift or other token of my love.
Recite a vow of love to you daily.
Keep my marriage covenant regularly visible in my daily life.

Frequently assess whether I am accomplishing C.1 through C.10, and concurrently

perform C.9. As a rule, do this every six months on the semi-anniversary of our
wedding.
Ask for your support in my implementation of C.1 through C.10.