Marriage is still a great thing

I always find something to do as a youth minister; however, my primary role is a minister. As such, I perform a few weddings in June that other ministers in the church don’t have time to do. I see this as a treat, since I believe in marriage on several levels. Before a couple gets married, there are counseling sessions on a variety of topics I conduct so there is an understanding of what is really happening.  Some of these people are those I first met as children and I have seen them mature in age and faith, so this is even a more special joy to join these couples in marriage.

Around this nation, marriage is still a great thing. Annually 2.2 million marriages are performed in the United States and that breaks down to more than 6,000 a day. (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/).  A person can see why I get extra busy this time of year.

According to the CDC, 25.8 and 27.4 are the estimated U.S. median ages at first marriage for women and men, respectively, in 2004. The age for women rose 4.7 years in the last three decades. The age for men at first marriage is up 4.3 years. (http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/ms2.pdf)  This age varies by region. Men and women in northeastern states generally have a higher median age at first marriage than the national average. In Massachusetts, for example, women were a median of 27.4 years old and men 29.1 years of age at first marriage. States where people typically marry young include Utah, where women were a median of 21.9 years and men, 23.9 years (http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/fertility/005807.html).

Since a wedding is a unique event in a person’s life, it is big business from clothes to food, flowers to photography, and a wedding can cost from $10,000 to $50,000 or more.  Once the wedding is over, the journey starts.  Marriage is more than just two people  of the opposite-sex living together, which was or 4.2 percent of all households in 2004 (http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2004.html).  There is a legal contract involved, along with a religious contract for life.

I have been married for more than 10 years, and we make it work.  It is the right way to raise a family. People and circumstances change throughout a marriage, but the union needs to stay strong for several reasons.  Changes in births, jobs, locations, deaths, finances are events which alter a marriage, but Jesus says in Matthew 19:5-6, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother  and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”  Through this union, children enter our lives, and children are precious in Jesus’ eyes.

Despite divorce laws and reasons why people can’t get along, I believe marriage is a legitimate legal institution in the eyes of today’s society and the eyes of the Lord, and it will continue because it is woven into the fabric of who we are as a group of people.

Peace be you with always,

Rev. Paul Abernathy

“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” -2 Peter 1:2

Contact Paul Abernathy at paulabernathy@gmail.com.

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