Eh?! What was 'at? Wha' you say?

There are a few main keys to a successful relationship: God, love, commitment, trust, and communication. All are important, but the two most important are God and communication, without which, none of the others would exist or matter. God is the one who ordained marriage, so a marriage without Him is hollow and pointless. Secondly, a successful marriage, or relationship is based off of good communication. Communication can span in many different areas, such as body language, speech, and actions. Good communication involves a solid understanding of how you feel, what you want, and what you're willing to tolerate. Equally important involved in good communication is the ability to listen. Listening makes up a big portion of communication. However, there is more to listening than just being able to recall what someone said, it's being able to accurately interpret what a person said. There are many things that can hinder the ability or intentions of listening: defensiveness, biases, interruptive habits, and selective attention. If a person is on the defensive about a topic, they're likely not listening to the opposing view, but rather looking for a retort. If a person is bias about a subject, they will likely only ever hear what they want to hear, or interpret what is said differently than what is intended. Also, if a person has an interruptive attitude or habit usually aren't interested in what's being said but are more interested in what he or she wants to say. Lastly, a selective attention is similar to that of a biased person, in that they generally only hear what they want to hear, but the difference is, they only hear certain things not because they want to, but more because their thought process is more frantic, thinking of many different things all at once, conclusively, not giving someone their undivided attention. All of these hindrances can inhibit good communication within a marriage or relationship.