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Monday, July 8, 2024

MARRIAGE IS IMPORTANT

   Carol, my late wife who was born in 1947, was the only child in her first-grade class from, as she called it, a “broken home.” I believe Carol wrestled with missing her father until she died in January 2019.

“Our culture needs more messages about the importance of marriage,” according to The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation. “Unwed childbearing is the norm in many communities, and nearly half of all children in the United States spend at least a part of their childhood in a non-intact family.”

Carol once attended a Furman University education class after teaching elementary school for years. A lady student commented to the class that she and her husband divorced the previous year and she thought their young son “was about over it.” Carol, whose mother divorced Carol’s father when Carol was two, waited till class ended and told the lady, “You never get over it.”  

“A supportive marriage is one of the greatest blessings in life, yet popular opinion on marriage has declined,” writes Matthew Little, health editor for The Epoch News, in an article titled “‘Til a Delayed Death Do Us Part.”

“Modern film, television, and music seem to obsess over casual romantic encounters, but as people lose sight of the value of marriage, suffering increases,” Little says. 

Psychologist Gad Saad says the most critical elements of a strong marriage are shared values and beliefs. 

Researchers confirm that certain traditions play a role in marriage health, such as not living together before committing to marriage. Timothy S. Goeglein, vice president of Focus on the Family, notes that people today seek to cohabitate before marriage as a way of test-driving the relationship but this approach doesn’t grant assurance as much as it weakens commitment.  

“It’s faith that provides the perseverance to keep a marriage together when troubles arise,” Goeglein says.

What does the Bible say about marriage?

“And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18) 

“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

“And he [Jesus] answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,

“And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?   “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:4-6).

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