Marriage Talk

Lately I've been asking myself a couple of questions. What makes a marriage or relationship work? Why are so many people stuck in loveless relationships? I have friends whom are married that constantly complain about how unhappy they are with their spouses. It is never for one particular reason either, it seems like they're unhappy with the relationship overall. The way I see it if something or someone is making your life miserable then get it away from it as fast as possible.
When I have advised friends to leave the relationship if it makes them that unhappy, they answer with it's not that easy.  I know it is not especially when you have a family, but some times it is the best thing to do. Being in a loveless marriage doesn't only make one or two people unhappy, it affects the entire family and some times the children more than the parents. My husband and I had to walked away and it was the best decision we could have made when it came to our marriage. We walked away twice, but we realized in the end we really wanted our marriage to work. The separation made us realized what we had was worth fighting for and we decided to work on it. This was 5 years ago and since then our relationship has been stronger than ever.
I understand that it doesn't always work out the way it did for us, but some times you need to loose something to value its existence.