First Lady of Royal House Chapel International Rev Mrs Rita Korankye-Ankrah has advised would-be-couples to love and submit to each other in marriage.

She was speaking on the topic "Headship, Submission, Mutual Respect" at the just-ended Joy FM Family Forum held at the Best Western Plus Hotel in Nungua, dubbed ‘Becoming Mr. & Mrs, All you need to know before Marriage.'

According to Mrs Korankye-Ankrah, affectionately called Mama Rita, most marriages end in divorce due to lack of headship, submission, and mutual respect issues.

The First Lady of Royal House Chapel Int'l revealed that Ghana's 2021 Housing and Population Census indicates that more than 550, 000 persons in Ghana have had their marriages dissolved, and over 400, 000 marriages have also separated.

Mama Rita highlighted that some of the situations that normally lead to divorce could be attributed to cultural reasons in that, in a typical Ghanaian setting, men are socialised to think that cooking and house duties are solely women's responsibility, so they fail to help at home.

"If both the husband and wife are working and both go through the traffic and get home after 6 pm, common sense and love just say, help your wife to get things done and after everything, both of you enjoy together."

"Don't leave everything for the woman to do and expect performance in bed afterwards. Your marriage will break," Mama Rita stated.

She also mentioned that another reason marriage collapse is when the husband doesn't take leadership roles but wants to be respected and honoured.

"If it is the woman that is bringing income, paying school fees, paying utilities, then what is the woman submitting to?" Mama Rita quizzed.

She suggested that if the woman is the breadwinner, then the man must help at home to tidy up, lay the bed, prepare supper, and assist the children with their homework.

Another reason she gave that could break a marriage is a lack of appreciation for one another.

Explaining that when the husband does not appreciate what the wife does because he thinks he's the breadwinner, and the woman only takes care of the home and children, then, there'll be a problem.

She proffered some solutions from the Bible, saying only God has the manual for marriage because he instituted it.

According to the First Lady of Royal House Chapel, Ephesians 5:22-25 states clearly that for marriages to thrive, husbands must love their wives, wives should submit to their husbands, and both of them must submit to one another.

She admits that submission has had very bad taste because it is perceived as demeaning and degrading.

She stated that submission also has advantages.

Mama Rita explained that submission is showing respect to one's husband and accepting his responsibility as a leader in the home.

"Submission is not losing your rights and your voice, or making the woman a second-class citizen."

She testified about the benefit of submission in her marriage.

"One thing I learnt quickly was to submit to the leadership of my husband. Everybody that knows me right from my St. Marys days will tell you I'm a very strong woman, but I learnt to submit in my marriage.

"Out of my submission, today, I have one of the biggest women's organisations in Ghana, if not in West Africa. "

In addition, she urged husbands to love their wives and provide for them.

Mama Rita also reiterated the need for husbands and wives to submit to one another.

"Get under each other and lift one another up, put each other's life in order and lift each other until there's order in your lives. Raise each other to a level of importance and worthiness,"

In her opinion, "When you get married to somebody, you need to contribute to the person's well-being. You don't have to be afraid that when you support her, she's going to rub shoulders with you."

She revealed that when she met her husband 37 years ago, he was Brother Ankrah, but with her help, he's now Apostle General.

"When I met my husband, he didn't have a ministry, I helped him to start a church, and I helped him bring it to the level where it is now. Today, I'm a partaker of Royal House Chapel worldwide, "

"Likewise, when my husband met me, I had only a diploma from then, Accra Polytechnic. He helped me to get a first degree and a second degree."

In conclusion, she advised would-be-couples to love and submit to each other, and God will bless them.