Mrs. Clementine Churchill, right, laughs heartily as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill talks at Chigwell, England, during his election campain, May 27, 1945. (AP Photo)

One of the best ways to prepare yourself for marriage is by studying married couples.  One couple that has always inspired me are the Churchill’s.

Sir Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.  He also won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 and was the first of only eight people to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.

And yet, despite all these achievements, he maintained the following:

“My ability to persuade my wife to marry me was quite my most brilliant achievement…”

Churchill was born in Blenheim Castle in Oxfordshire and it was here that he proposed to Clementine. He said:

“At Blenheim I took two very important decisions: to be born and to marry.  I am content with the decision I took on both occasions”.

Judging by the divorce rate in the world today there are far too few husbands who echo those sentiments.

Pride in persuading their wife to marry them and a feeling of contentment in said marriage!

Winston and his wife, Clementine, were married for fifty-six years and had five children.    The couple stayed true to the marriage vows they took in 1908 “till death us do part” as their bond was only broken by Winston’s death in 1965.

In a letter that Winston penned to Clementine in 1935, twenty-seven years into their marriage, he said this:

Time passes swiftly, but is it not joyous to see how great and growing is the treasure we have gathered together, amid the storms and stresses of so many eventful and to millions tragic and terrible years?

They had lived through one World War and were on the brink of a second World War and yet he took pride in the fact that their marriage was a growing treasure.

They had some wonderful advice to give married couples.

His advice “If you are going through hell, keep going”.

(…suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope. – Romans 5:3,4)

Clementine’s advice was to feed your husband well and to write down anything that was contentious and hand it to the other person so that they could consider it before responding.  We, wives, could learn a lot from Clementine.

“If you find yourself in competition with men,” she said, “never become aggressive. She who forces her point may well lose her advantage. You will gain far more by quietly holding to your convictions. But even this must be done with art and above all with a sense of humour.”

(“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Proverbs 15:1)