Here is an interesting bit of information. People who study human society have cataloged what they called the Life Stress Inventory. This is a list of events in life that cause most of us the greatest stress in life. Most of these items are of no interest to me. But the top three items are what caught my attention. Here they are.
1. Death of a spouse.
2. Divorce
3. Marital separation
Marriage comes in at number seven. Incarceration in prison at number four.
People who enter the covenant of marriage enter into what the Bible calls the Two Become One union. This is the most permanent and lasting bond people can enter into into. Before there was any hint of the cross in the Bible there was marriage. And so this helps us understand why the tearing apart of a bond like marriage is stressful to say the least.
I can easily say that the death of your spouse after years of marriage is the worst thing that I ever went through. I have talked to people who are divorced and they are damaged goods. Prison is hard on the individual but it is harder on the spouse on the outside.
I bring all of this up not as an academic exercise but rather to appeal to our churches to do more to encourage and support and to maintain marriage in our churches. You think that salvation is the most important thing and in one sense you are correct. But beyond the alter life must be lived. My experience was that the death of my wife almost cost me my faith. So anyone who thinks that marriage is a side issue or not important will find their church full of stressed out people and broken homes. Just saying.
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