Choosing the right person to marry is not an easy decision but it appears there are similarities in how people make that choice. According to Katy Steinmetz of Time.com, religion and politics were the top two factors important to people in choosing a spouse. Steinmetz's article lists traits, issues, and attitudes listed by more than 5,000 couples.

Before you get married, we recommend that couples discuss important issues, especially these four issues.

What made you decide to get married? Please share your story.

If you and your spouse work together or are considering going into business together, you need to not only have great communication skills, you need to have a sense of humor.

We learned after working together more than a quarter of a century that being in business together can either make or break a marriage. Donna Summer and her husband Bruce Sudano realized in the beginning of their marriage that if they wanted to continue to work together they needed to create balance in their lives. Donna took a long sabbatical to give their marriage a strong foundation.

Here are some tips to make both your marriage and your business partnership successful.

Poll: Has working together hurt your marriage? Vote!

Related: Married to the Boss: Running a Business With Your Spouse | Family Businesses | Working at Home | Starting a Husband-Wife Business | Home Businesses | Couples Who Work Together Face Uphill Battles

I like what Michelle Gielan has to say about keeping your promises.

"When we don't keep a promise to someone, it communicates to that person that we don't value him or her. We have chosen to put something else ahead of our commitment. Even when we break small promises, others learn that they cannot count on us. Tiny fissures develop in our relationships marked by broken promises."

An example of not keeping promises and breaking down trust in a relationship is the stormy and sad marriage of Sofya and Leo Tolstoy. Reading their diaries was difficult for me. They both promised to be there for one another, and they both yearned to be understood, yet through their many years together they couldn't or wouldn't give that gift to one another.

Leo Tolstoy: "Nobody will ever understand me."

Sofya Tolstoy: "He has never taken the trouble to understand me, and does not know me in the least."

Source: Source: William L. Shirer. Love and Hatred: The Troubled Marriage of Leo & Sonja Tolstoy. 1994. backcover.

Poll: Do you keep your word? Vote!

When women decide to keep their birth names after marriage, people today aren't shocked. That wasn't the case back in the 1850s.

Lucy Stone started the trend to keep her own last (birth) name when she married in 1855. Much later, in the 1970s, more women made the same decision regarding their surnames. Some couples like Jennifer Mulhern Granholm and Daniel Granholm Mulhern take one another's surnames as their middle names.

It was around thirty years ago that the ACLU filed a lawsuit in Rhode Island concerning a woman's right to choose which name she wanted to use. There are many people grateful that Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell had enough love and respect for one another to walk that unpopular journey so many years ago.