A TRIBUTE TO MARRIAGE
“Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam...”
(Movie: The Princess Bride)
Since Patti and I are in Kansas leading a marriage retreat, and since our Bible reading this past week included Moses reviewing the marriage covenant, the following research is presented for your consideration:
- Married people have a healthier lifestyle. People who are married tend to avoid more harmful behaviors than do single, divorced, or widowed persons.
- Married people live longer. Married people live several years longer than do single, divorced, or widowed persons.
- Married people have more satisfying sexual relationships than single or cohabiting individuals.
- Married people are happier. Married couples are happier than single men and women and report far less depression and anxiety than single, divorced, or widowed individuals.
- Married people have more wealth and economic assets. Because married couples can pool their economic resources, they tend to be wealthier.
- Children generally do better in a two-parent home. Children from two-parent homes tend to be more emotionally healthy and achieve better academically than children from divorced homes....and less likely to have an unwed pregnancy.
- Society benefits when children are raised within a family. Communities with more married-parent families have lower rates of substance abuse and crime among their young people. (David H. Olson, et al, Find Your Relationship Strengths: The Couple Checkup)
Timothy Keller in his book, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God, defines marriage as, “A lifelong, monog-amous relationship between a man and a woman… to reflect (God’s) saving love for us in Christ, to refine our character, to create stable human community for the birth and nurture of children, and to accomplish all this by bringing the complementary sexes into an enduring whole-life union.” Let’s hear it for the difficult… the refining… yet wondrously rewarding mystery…“Mawage!” God is good! Mr. Steve
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