Why Don't We Get Married???

In our society people aften ask the question, "why do we get married???" Afterall, the divorce rate is 50% (WAY TOO HIGH) and the average marriage last 8 yrs (NOT NEARLY LONG ENOUGH). Now I could make the GOD argument and talk about his will for us and the sanctity of marriage (which I strongly believe in), but I'll take another approach. An approach that some may describe as a little more practical. What I want to do is to take a look at the options we have outside of marriage; which would either be cohabitation (not married but living together) or to simply date while living in separate homes.


The average cohabitating relationship last 3yrs, and the average nonmarried noncohabitating relationship last 2yrs. 79% of cohabitating relationships do not make it to the 5 yr mark; only 21% of these couple make it to the 7 yr mark. Which would mean that on average a marriage last 2 1/2 times longer than a cohabitating relationship and 4 times longer than a nonmarried noncohabitating relationship. This would also mean that a person who consistently cohabitates could likely go through the process of beginnning and ending 4 to 5 relationships over the course of 15 yrs. What effect does this constant cycle of failed relationships have on the men and women involved??? What effect does it have on the children involved???


I can easily talk about the effect that that cycle has on the men and women involved, but i would much rather focus on the children. Based upon the statistics I mentenioned earlier, a child who comes from a cohabitating household is much more likely to not only experience a broken home (a household without a father) than a child who comes from a married household, but they're also much more likely to experience the dissolution of a home multiple times over. Numbers are often very misleading but in this case they tell a compelling truth: 70% of high school dropout come from broken homes, 85% of prison inmates (both male and female) come from broken homes, 85% of children with behavioral problems come from from broken homes, and 90% of runaways come from broken homes. Furthermore, households that do not have a father/husband in the home are losing 300 BILLION DOLLARS a year; which also means that those households are missing out economically.


What does all this mean for our society???...Hmmmm...Let's see...Less high school grads, less college grads, less entreprenuers, more crime, more gang members, more poverty...AND...THE CYCYLE CONTINUES...AND ON...AND ON...AND ON...
I strongly believe that marriage is necessary...Instead of choosing to not get married, we would do ourselves, our children, and our community MUCH GOOD to focus on strengthening the institution of marriage...The results are clear...
GOD BLESS!!!