While embracing each other's differences is important in modern day society, when it comes to the person that you want to spend the rest of your life with, I feel that you should choose someone with the same morals and beliefs.
It can be a hard waiting for that person, as many people will just settle for someone decent who treats them well, but this will save a lot of heartache in the future.
This is not to say that you can't be friends with those who hold different morals and beliefs. In fact, my closest friend is different of me in many of these ways. It makes for interesting conversations and debates.
But when it is the person you decide to wake up to every day, that's a little different.
How would you merge your lives? Have a deep understanding for one another? Raise your kids (if you want them)?
There is a difference between morals and beliefs:
Morals are your standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for someone to to.
Beliefs are an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists, or trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something.
If you decide to live out your life with someone, and want to cheer them on, accepting their conduct of behavior and believing that what they do is acceptable to you is key. You want to value the same morals to be a good support system for one another.
For example, you may value being proud of where you come from, being honest, being modest, being respectful, etc., so finding someone that values those same qualities could help you build a deeper relationship.
This doesn't mean you have to agree on every little thing, as being different gives a relationship more vibrance, but if you have morals that you strongly believe in, finding a significant other who respects that and holds onto similar morals will make doing life with them more enjoyable.
More personally, I have found that I could never date someone with a different belief system than me, especially religious.
Everyone is different in this sense, and perhaps feel that they could find a way to make it work, but it's a big deal to me to be with someone else who is also a Christian.
From my experience, being able to talk about God, read the bible, and pray with my significant other has deepened our understanding of each other, and how we want to incorporate our beliefs into our lives together.
It has connected us on a whole other level.
I could not feel this way if I dated someone who was Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, Atheist, etc.
Again, not to say I'm not friends with people of different religions and belief systems.
But when I go to church, I want that person there with me, and I want our future children to feed off of our united beliefs.
This can also be seen not only in religious belief, but with political beliefs, views about life in general, how you should conduct relations with others, and more.
Overall, we can be friends with everyone, love on everyone, and share amazing experiences with those who are different from us (one of my beliefs!), but when I wake up to someone for the rest of my life, I want to know we are on the same page, flourishing in life and in love.
