I was just on Two of Us and saw an interesting statistic that 82% of 18-30 year olds hope to have a lifelong marriage. With rampant divorce, the amount of cohabitation, and the current emphasis on gay marriage, I am encouraged that so many young people still dream to have a lifelong marriage. Part of my challenge is helping find effective ways for their dreams to become reality.
I am in a writing class and our assignment is to do some competitive market research. I went to Amazon and searched for marriage reconciliation. It is amazing how much encouragement you can get by just reading the limited “Look Inside” summaries on some books. There is so much help out there with just a few clicks of the keyboard.
I just started a blog yesterday at www.savemymarriage7.blogspot.com. My idea is that people who desperately want to save their marriage, can dialogue with me and hopefully I can give them encouragement and point them to helpful resources. My hope is that I can comfort others with the comfort I received when I desperately wanted my marriage to turn around.
I came across these links on Smart Marriages.
http://smartmarriages.com/grants.html#registry
http://smartmarriages.com/directory_browse.html#type_19
There is a boatload of info here about community marriage resources and if you dig through it, a lot of help for individual marriages. This certainly gives reason to hope for a more positive change in tide for marriage.
Some days I read so many sources I can’t remember where I saw something, but I was encouraged the other day to see that the federal government is going to run an ad campaign to encourage marriage. Many in the government are seeing the pluses from a secular and economic perspective of saving marriages, i.e. less single family homes, less people in poverty, etc.
Now, if we the church can reinforce the message from a Christian perspective in a way that hits people in the heart, we might make some real progress.
Mike McManus from Marriage Savers has written a three part series in his Ethics and Religion column about divorce reform.
I really like what he says about No-Fault divorce causing a situation where the defendant in a lawsuit – the person wanting to save their marriage with an unwilling partner – always loses. He makes a case the no-fault divorce is actually unconstitutional. Makes sense to me.
http://ethicsandreligion.com/redesignedcolumns/C1427.htm
I was at the checkout today at Office Depot and they were selling Fireproof. I was very surprised to see it there, but encouraged with the broad distribution the movie is getting.
My wife and I have been working on a book that will tell the story of our separation and reconciliation as well as provide resources for couples who are struggling.
Any prayers for this project are greatly appreciated. We have never written a book before and in writing our story it does bring back a lot of less than wonderful memories.
For those of you who have reconciled don’t get discouraged when memories from the past resurface or you start to head into an old unhealthy pattern. My observation is that healing takes time and is not a straight line, but Jesus is with us all the way.
Well, Valentine’s Day has come and gone. This is a reminder to myself (and to you) to ponder ways to continue to show love to our spouses even without the incentive of the Valentine’s marketing machine.
It’s also good to remember that little things count – a small card, an email or text, a small bouquet of flowers, doing an unexpected kindness, and more.
Here’s to a year of Valentine’s thoughtfulness.
stubborn-pursuits.com 