Jordan and his Master's Thesis

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Finally a couple of long awaited results for the infamous “Joined vs. Separate Bank Accounts“-survey…

Some important information beforehand:

• the transmittals have been filtered manually to ensure that the results are as representative as possible (non-representative age groups have been eliminated)
• the number of total participants was surprisingly high
  (Thank you very much for the active participation!)
• unfortunately the number of married participators was too low to guarantee at least a bit of representativity (thus those datasets have been removed leading to a “singles-only” survey)
• the option “both” for question 5 (“In your opinion should spouses have joint or separate bank accounts? – Sollten Ihrer Meinung nach Ehepartner gemeinsame oder getrennte Bankkonten haben?”) was added subsequently based on feedback from participants.
  I’m aware of the fact that it’s biasing the outcomes.
  If you are complaining that you would have voted for “both” if it would have been available:
  1) you could have noted it (Q6 or Q7)
  2) if it didn’t come to your mind, maybe you were happy with the given possibilities
  [I know... I'm choosing the easy route here, but I guess you'll have to live with it ]
• a lot of people have asked me what my answers were to the questions
  (it was meant to be an anonymous survey, but I really don’t care):
  Q1 – male; Q2 – 23-25; Q3 – no; Q4 – none; Q5 – joint bank accounts;
  Q6 – it’s all a matter of trust… if I can’t trust my wife, whom can I trust?; Q7 – none
• Please don’t think that these results are scientifically accurate! They are not!
  The number of returns is just too low related to the the survey population.
  The results answer some of my questions, and that’s what I was hoping for when I was
  planning the survey.

Ok… enough blah… here are the results:

[ + ] male and female, 19-30 years[ - ] male and female, 19-30 years

[ + ] only male, 19-30 years[ - ] only male, 19-30 years

[ + ] only female, 19-30 years[ - ] only female, 19-30 years

[ + ] only male, 19-22 years[ - ] only male, 19-22 years

[ + ] only female, 19-22 years[ - ] only female, 19-22 years

[ + ] only male, 23-25 years[ - ] only male, 23-25 years

[ + ] only female, 23-25 years[ - ] only female, 23-25 years

[ + ] only male, 26-30 years[ - ] only male, 26-30 years

[ + ] only female, 26-30 years[ - ] only female, 26-30 years

I’ll evaluate Q6 and Q7 as soon as I have a bit more time, so stay tuned for part 2…

again: Thanks for the participation in the survey!

Happy Valentine’s Day to everybody out there who already found the one person who completes you!
(as I’m not that much evangelic I truly hope, that she/he is from the opposite sex though )

Some of you reading this might already be married, some might be on their way to marriage some are still single and looking for true love.

I’m a huge romantic myself, but when it comes to the topic “love” there is one brutal fact I had to accept:
Love is not a feeling, love is a decision!

When we are talking about “falling in love”, I can agree with you, that there are butterflies in one’s stomach and all the strong emotions making you feel like you are on cloud nine…

We usually fall in love with the person’s appearance, with the way she/he walks, the way she/he talks. Sometimes we impute to our object of love some mystic illusion, ideal qualities and the more we get to know the person the less we fall for him or her. That’s when the feeling of love disappears even faster than it appeared. (Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD)

If somebody asks you today, “Why do you love your partner?” – what would you say?
Would you mention her beautiful eyes, her wonderful voice, her kindness, her cooking,
his personality, his well-trained physique, because he is always there for you?
What if over the course of years, your partner stopped being every one of these things? Would you still love her/him?

Based on your answers above, the only logical response would be “no”. If your reasons for loving your partner all have something to do with her or his qualities – and then those same qualities suddenly or gradually disappear – your basis for love is over.
The only way love can last a lifetime is if it’s unconditional. The truth is: love is not determined by the one being loved but rather by the one choosing to love. (Stephen and Alex Kendrick)

This wouldn’t be a good post about “love” without quoting something from “The Excellence of Love”

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:7 (New American Standard Bible)

In my opinion this kind of love can only come from God! Without him there is no way I could love somebody without a “but…” or “only if…”.

Love is unconditional!
As soon as you realize that, you won’t be saying “I love you because…”.
Instead you will say: “I love you, period.”

Call me stupid (I don’t care ) but the last weeks I had to think about this quite a lot:
If love is a feeling, would I ever be able to promise anything like this to someone?

In the presence of God, our family and friends,
[Name], I take you to be my lawfully wedded wife.
I join my life with yours.
Wherever you go, I will go;
I will always be with you and support you,
in times of health and in times of sickness,
in times of joy and in times of sorrow.
I promise to love you completely and unconditionally,
to console and comfort you during difficult times,
to laugh with you and to grieve with you,
to be truthful and honest with you,
so that we may serve Christ together,
as long as we both shall live.

Love is not a feeling, love is a decision!

This post is partly based on some chapters of the book “The Love Dare” written by Stephen and Alex Kendrick

The image used in this post was supplied by FreeFoto.com