Marriage is healthy!

The research is in! Marriage is healthy! That's right. According to research, married people are healthier and live longer than their single counterparts. OK. Marriage is healthy - but are marriages healthy? In a day when so many marriages end up in divorce court and many that don't easily could - can we say, on the whole, that marriages are healthy? Regrettably no. And that is sad!

Our Creator-God designed marriage to bring joy and fulfillment to humanity. But all too often, it has brought disillusionment and shattered lives instead. Why is this? The answer is often complicated - but I think I can simplify it. It usually comes down to the fact that far too many husbands and far too many wives are SELF-FOCUSED. We look at our spouse and say, "I have needs. Meet my needs!" Since our spouse can not meet our needs in the way we demand, we grow disenchanted and eventually embittered. Given enough time, our marriage will die. Divorce often follows.

What is the solution? We need to replace this SELF-FOCUS with a SPOUSE-FOCUS. By this I mean instead of looking at our husband or wife to meet our needs, let's look at the opportunity we have to meet our spouse's needs! No, we will never do it perfectly. But that doesn't mean we should not try. Marriages will be far healthier (and happier!) if a husband is seeking to serve his wife and a wife is striving to serve her husband. So if you are married - seek to serve your spouse today. Your marriage will be better for it!

Thanks for listening,

pj