The high divorce rate in this country has nothing to do with the institution of mariage.
No matter how well-planned or how ill-conceived, an institution will measure up or go belly up depending on the committment or the care of the people involved.
What has happened in this country, that men and women who have been married for years are now beginning to seek out separation then divorce?
This trend is a troubling development on the horizon, that the vows of holy matrimony mean nothing more to people than the exchange of contractual obligations and a fancy celebration with wine and dancing.
Dr. Phil has indicted many fool-hardy couples which rushed into a wedding, but never thought through the marriage.
"Till death do us part" -- yet marriage requires a death on the part of the two who enter into the union. To give up an "I" for an "Us" as one character in a Tyler Perry movie argued. The destruction of the selfish ambition and the creation of a new unity must be honored and respected from the beginning, or the whole engagement will not engage anyone through the shocks and storms of life.
Man and woman leave home and become one flesh, this is a great mystery, one which exists apparently yet cannot be explained or reduced rationally. Man and woman become one -- what have people learned about holy matrimony apart from what they hear and see on television? The marriage that their parents had, was it a prosperous marriage or a failure?
The quality of the marriage that one man and one woman have can determine the life that their children will seek for themselves. Then again, the failure or the success of the union may instruct future generations on how better to proceed with their partners.
Maturity is diminishing in this world, a result of telling the younger generation in years past that they can choose their own way, that they can decide all on their own how they will strike into the world. The world that every one of us steps into, however, is made up of formulas, forums, formalities which we did not invent, into which we are invested, whether we are informed of our essential participation or not.
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