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Did you know that it is the National Single and Unmarried American’s Week? Neither did I until I learned it from the New York Times! They believe that it’s a shame that we push people into marriage. Personal experience tells me that people in general don’t seem to have that problem.
The value of marriage is significantly less than it has ever been, and I believe this is for a variety of reasons:
The Vow Means Nothing
There are many hurting people around us. These people are hurting, in part, because of a lack of commitment—after the vow. When two people get before witnesses today, they may say that they are together “for better or worse” but they don’t mean it. When trouble comes, many people find themselves splitting up and leaving damaged people in their wake—be they friends, family or the spouses themselves.
Women in the Workplace
At one point in our nation’s history, women and men were dependent on each other. Men provided the money for shelter and food to meet the family’s needs. Women provide the love, and nurturing atmosphere in the home and provided for the man’s physical and other needs.
Today, women are the new men, rising higher, doing it all, and they don’t need men for anything—not even to have a child. We’ve trained people to live alone and not to ever open up and depend on another person.
Enjoy all the Benefits With None of the Responsibility
Because of the way that the homosexual lobby progressed in getting their partnerships approved, we have a lot of laws on the books now that provide benefits to cohabitating people. I know that many cohabitating people get married, and many do not, but why would anyone want to have that kind of commitment (and the potential problem when it gets broken— see above) when it falls apart?
What is the Case for Marriage, Anyway?
It’s at this point that those of us who believe marriage to be sacred and important really need to evaluate the state of marriage and figure out what it is that we truly believe. If marriage is important, then maybe we need to help define it in stronger ways.
Perhaps we need to encourage those around us to have covenant marriages—more pre-marital counseling and the inability to get out.
Perhaps we need to campaign for the government to get out of marriage.
In any case, while I agree with the article in the Time’s authors that we should not be pushing people into getting married, neither should we be downplaying the importance of getting married. It is only through marriage and children that we actually can grasp what it means to put another person first (at least for some of us!), and it’s important for growing as a person.
Image from Stock Exchange used under the Standard Restrictions explained at the link.
