This post is from a friend of mine, a wonderful woman named Tonya Brooks.  Tonya is the ne plus ultra of midwives and runs the Natural Birth and Women's Center in California.  Check out their Facebook page!

"I have seen many post on relationships, marriage, self esteem. In 15 days I will have been married 45 years! So every day I am going to post my thoughts and conclusions about happy, fulfilling marriages. So here goes. First as a woman you need to look for some basic things in men. The very first one is are your goals and purposes the same or lined up. That is if you are a city girl and he only wants to live in the back woods? Do you want the same things out of life? Next are you equally yoked? You can't put a fast ambitious smart person with a slower non ambitious one - no matter how "hot", pretty or handsome they might be. This basically means that the other person has to be as intelligent and ambitious as are you. If this happens and your goals are aligned you can help each other, work together on shared goals.! Lastly and most important they must have integrity. They would NOT lie , steal or cheat. Integrity is the most important building block of marriage. Bob has never lied to me or I to him. I have never cheated on him or him on me...This is just not in our universe So with that we can still have plenty of issues but integrity, common goals matched ambition leads us to mutual respect which is the next building block in a successful marriage. O.K. More tomorrow! Have a wonderful Tuesday." 

Love, Tonya Brooks