As 2014 comes to a conclusion, it is a good time to look back on the year.

I write about marriage every Wednesday. It’s one of my favorite topics and on a weekly basis it is the day in which my website is read the most.

Here are the Top 5 Most Read Posts of 2014:

5. The Wedding Predicts the Marriage It’s not a universal rule but I have noticed a general relationship between how a wedding goes and how a marriage goes. If a couple handles the wedding well, they generally handle marriage well. However, if the little stresses of a wedding creates tension, it’s a bad omen for the future of the relationship.

4.The Greatest Threat to Your Marriage  “Whenever a couple says ‘I do’ to one another, they are also saying ‘I won’t’ to everyone else.” Marriage is important enough that it must be guarded. Without internal and external defenses, a marriage will not succeed. What is the greatest threat to your marriage? The greatest threat is the moment you ignore a normally respected boundary. It’s granting the exception regarding physical or emotional boundaries that put us in great danger.

3. I May Not Be Married Tomorrow “It’s a dangerous trap to believe we will live forever.” Knowing that I won’t live forever causes me to deeply appreciate the time I have been given with my wife.

2. No Wonder You Don’t Love Each Other “Is it any surprise that a couple who never spends any time together other trying to manage day-to-day life, no longer feels a deep emotional connection or love for one another.” This may be my favorite marriage post of the year. It is so obvious that anyone could write it, yet we are so oblivious that everyone needs to read it.

1. The Number One Cause of Divorce Both on my site and a few other sites which republished the post, this was the most read post written in 2014. Marriages most often die because one or both spouses fail to work on the marriage with serious intention. When both spouses attend to the marriage, the relationship most often thrives. However, many couples do not work with intention on their marriage. They hope to succeed rather than doing the work which success requires.

Those are the top 5 posts written in 2014, yet the most read marriage post of 2014 was written in 2013. The Most Overlooked Characteristic of Who You Want to Marry has been read over 3.5 million times this year. While it connected with people last year, it struck a deep connection this year.

Thank you for taking the time to read, share, and comment this past year.

Let me know which marriage article was your favorite in 2014 and don’t hesitate to share it with a friend.