Yesterday in Sunday School we had a question come up: What if people had to prove they were competent before they got married?
It's a good question. To get married today, all you need to do is go to the town hall, fill out the necessary paperwork, and prove that you are old enough to get married. No classes or training necessary. However, somebody mentioned that when he got married, he didn't know anything...he said that it is something you learn as go. How to be married. This is true, but I think people would be better off if they sought premarital counseling before they wed. Too many people today think that marriages are easily disposed of if they don't work right. I think this all goes back to feelings and our culture's idea of love. Today's culture doesn't think of love as a verb, only as a noun, something you fall into and out of, as if it were a place on the highway with enter and exit ramps.
No. To really love a spouse (or anybody else, for that matter), you need to learn to love God first. Then He will help you love your spouse properly. God needs to be at the center of a marriage for that marriage to work properly. Sure, there may be non-Christian marriages that look happy, and perhaps are, but they're not complete without God.
Another question that comes up is what is love? This is answered best by 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

 A familiar passage, one that is read at most weddings. If only couples would take those words to heart! I notice that this passage not only says what love is, but what love is not. And reading through the list, I find that I am not patient, I am not kind, I am jealous and boastful and proud and rude. I do demand my own way. I am very irritable, and my mind likes to record every instance of when I've been wronged. Sometimes I am indifferent to injustices and I'm not always glad when the truth is revealed. I am often ready to quit, I am often faithless and without hope, and I have a very low tolerance for suffering. This is what my sinful self naturally is without God's grace.
However, this is what Christ did and why, when we are made new in Him we have love:

Though He was God, He did not demand and cling to His rights as God. He made Himself nothing; He took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form He obediently humbled Himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

When we abide with Him, we will have all those characteristics of love as mentioned above. And only when we stay in God, can we properly love our spouses and have strong, godly marriages.

It's not surprising that this isn't being taught today in our culture. We think that when we get married we'll live happily ever after---nothing more to be done. We've fooled ourselves into believing that we'll never get irritated with our spouse, or do things that will drive our spouse crazy. We are going to disappoint our loved ones occasionally. It comes with the territory of being human.