The most difficult things in life are relational; marriage and child rearing are our biggest challenges, and they demand our very best. To enter marriage or to decide to rear children without educating ourselves is the most foolish thing we can do. "There is safety in a multitude of counselors", and nothing we do impacts the present and the future like marriage and children. It can be the most rewarding thing we ever do, or the most tragic. So we simply must do our due diligence in educating ourselves with books, sermons, wise friends and people we know that have happy and successful families. To neglect this eclipses everything else.