Meagan Good and Devon Franklin have shared their secret to successful marriage. They appeared recently on Walmart’s “Black Love and Relationships” panel as part of their “History Teaching History” program. The couple have had a high-profile relationship that is mixed with both Hollywood drama and the expectations of the church. They’ve also felt some of the pressure that comes with being together in the public eye, where fellow Christians are typically judging the way you go about living your life. Good has been the subject of much of this judgement for some of her more interesting public behavior.
Their fellow guests were, Stellar award-winner Bishop Paul S. Morton and his wife. Pastor Morton and it was hosted by Dr. Alduan Tart, TV One’s Love Addiction host. They talked about how to find sustaining love and how to have a successful marriage, a question that has become more difficult to answer in a complex world
The two couples were asked to share their advice on getting married and staying married.
Franklin, talking to One Church International, said about his marriage recently that, “I’m following God and I’m not going to worry about what you think it looks like or not because I know what he’s told me to do,” he said. “When God gives you a vision, a lot of people would see the persona of Meagan, but I would see Meagan because God revealed and showed me who she was. So when I see who she really is, and I see her, I see me and I’m like, that’s me.”
Good said that the first thing she did was iron out the problems in her own self before she went onto working at her marriage. She said that after having done that, God gave her direction about getting married even to the point of who she should be getting married to.
Pastor Morton said that she was still in college and going for her career before thinking about getting married. Then she said that Bishop Morton told her that God had said to him that she would be his wife. He told her, ‘You’re my wife’ and I didn’t agree she said.
She went on to say that she became his friend first. Then reiterating this she said, “Friends first, ladies. Friends first.”
Bishop Morton said, “For singles, it’s very, very important and I know it’s difficult, I know it’s hard. But young ladies, even if you can wait, if you just don’t move too fast, that’s what really attracted me to her. Of course, I thought that she overdid it… The ‘no’s’ helped. You have to be strong because a man really appreciates that in the end…”
The panel was useful because the black community has faced changing dynamics in the dating world. The prisons have been filling up with black men over the last 30 years due to harsh sentences being given out during the war on drugs. This imbalance in the male-to-female ratio has led to an increase in single parent homes. An economist in England determined that for every 1% increase in the incarceration rate
Franklin went on to say, “I told everybody I would never date an actress. It would never happen. And I married one because I was open to God’s plan for my life…”
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