Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan celebrated his 30th wedding anniversary recently and took to Facebook to share his insights on marriage on happiness on Wednesday.
Sharing a video of his speech during his daughter’s wedding 3 years ago, Balakrishnan said, “We just celebrated our 30th anniversary. 4 children, 2 grandchildren later – this is what real happiness means.”
In his speech, Balakrishnan shared that he urged his sons, “when you date a girl, it is very important to look at her mother” because you can envision what the girl might look like in a few years based on how her mother looks.
Pointing to his wife who was by his side as he spoke, Balakrishnan quipped that his son-in-law has made a good choice in marrying his daughter. Nodding to his smiling wife, Joy, Balakrishnan said, “I think you will all agree with me, Nathaniel (his son-in-law) has chosen well.”
The Minister spoke about the mixed feelings of giving his daughter away, how to sustain a marriage and the joys of parenthood. Among other insights, he advised:
“The most important gift you can give your children is to love their mother.”
“Children need that sense of absolute security from knowing that their parents love each other.
“Children need the role model of parents who love each other and are committed for a lifetime
“In a day and age of instant gratification, these old-fashioned values of commitment for the long term, loving your partner and making it a life’s enterprise, I think this is even more essential in this day and age.”
He added that it is important to “pay love forward to the next generation”:
We just celebrated our 30th anniversary. 4 children, 2 grandchildren later – this is what real happiness means.Sharing my views on happiness and marriage during a speech I made at my daughter's wedding 3 years ago.
Posted by Vivian Balakrishnan on Tuesday, 28 November 2017
Netizens flooded the Minister’s page with congratulatory messages:
