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.