So this is why I think we all benefit from marital preparation in any way, at any time.  Marriage-to work, to others, to God himself-is a sacramental bond specially blessed by God. But they can only form and transform us if we prepare and discipline ourselves to endure the ups and downs of those relationships.  The key to that transformation is to cultivate within ourselves a profound love, the love demonstrated by Christ. This truly is a love that doesn’t want what it doesn’t have; totally confident in God and therefore in itself.