Jimmy Knowles’ (aka “Jimmy on Relationships”) has a viral video that takes on pre-marital counseling. Knowles’ video titled “The Premarital Counseling I Wish I Had YEARS Ago” has been viewed over a million times on Facebook, and judging by the comments, he nailed what every soon-to-be-married couple needs to hear.
In the popular video, a couple is visiting with a counselor for premarital counseling. All three characters are played by Knowles himself, which is quite entertaining, but his counseling advice is right on target.
He starts by asking the couple if they’re excited about their wedding, the counselor says, “Yeah, it’s meaningless. Your wedding—it has nothing to do with the success of your relationship. I’m not going to say it’s a waste of $20,000, unless of course you get divorced a few years later, which 50% of people do. So your marriage is practically a coin flip.”
He soon asks what they are going to do that’s different from people who end up divorced or in unfulfilling, unhealthy marriages, they respond that what’s different about them is that they’re “in love.”
“Wrong,” Jimmy responds. “Everyone’s in love on their wedding day. Do you know why 50% of those marriages fail? Because they didn’t know what love required of them—service, selflessness, sacrifice. Not one-sided. Mutual.”
“They didn’t have a plan to get things right,” he adds. “And they didn’t have a plan for what to do when things got hard and stressful, which they always do eventually.”
In less than 10 minutes, Knowles manages to unload a ton of truth on his listeners and the people who are responding are eating it up.
“As a child of divorce and someone who just celebrated our 20th anniversary, I wholeheartedly agree with every single word,” shared one commenter. “Fantastic wisdom here. I can’t say we’ve never hurt each other in conflict, but we have the commitment and care to put in the work and grow through what we’re going through.”
“This is really good advice,” shared another. “We got married at 17, pregnant, no money with broken childhoods. I thought it was love that got us through all our traumas. But listening to this guy, I realize because we love each other, the talking, the intimacy, the respect and care we gave came naturally. Even now, after over 40 years together, we try not to take it for granted, we still show affection and support.”
“This is how my marriage survived and thrived for 25 years, 1 week, and 6 days,” shared another. “The day my husband passed away at age 49. A marriage really does take work, but it’s so worth it and knowing it’s a shared experience of love…”
