Ready, or Just Restless?

Marriage carries a weight that other relationships do not, and it is worth asking, before you begin, whether you are ready for that weight, or whether you are simply worn out by being single, which is a different thing entirely.

Signs of readiness

• You can support a household, or have a concrete near-term plan to.
• You know your own faults well enough to warn someone about them.
• You want marriage for the deen and for tranquillity, not mainly to satisfy family or the people around you.
• You are willing to be inconvenienced for someone else, daily, for years.

Signs you might be restless, not ready

• You are counting on marriage to fix a loneliness that follows you everywhere.
• You have not told anyone in your life that you are looking, because you are not sure you are.
• Your list of requirements is long, exact, and mostly about status.

Readiness is not a feeling of certainty. It is a settled willingness to take responsibility for another person's wellbeing.