Marry Young vs. Establish Life and Career

In Sixteen days I will celebrate twenty nine years of being married to the most wonderful woman God could have paired me with. There have been a lot of great times. There have been some not so great times. If I get real honest about it, there have been some times that were down right horrible. One thing I can say for sure, in all these twenty nine years I have learned that without going through the bad, we would not have nearly as much good as we've had.

Three issues cause me to talk about this. First is obvious, our anniversary being right on top of us will always cause me to reflect on the love that Connie and I share. There were days and nights that each of us wondered what we were doing with each other. But we are both so glad that we worked through those times to arrive here today. God has even used those times to help other couples who are having trouble, giving them a living, breathing example that couples can indeed work through the issues of life and make it together on the other side.

Secondly, I heard this past week of another young couple who is calling it quits. I don't know all the details. I also don't think they would want their lives posted on the internet either. But I will say that this is a couple who has not been married even two years yet. One of the spouses has decided that they just cannot agree on how much the grandparents will be involved with any future grandchildren. What a shame? Children are not even in the picture yet and this couple will never know the joy that those same children will bring into their lives. They will never experience the love they feel as they hold those children for the very first time. They will never know the feeling of holding those little hands or the hugs those little arms are so free to give.

Finally, an article came across my computer screen today talking about marriage. I read most of it simply because the title said something about the church needing to teach younger marriage. Interesting article, the author makes the point that our society encourages putting off marriage to "find ourselves." Along with later marriage comes later child birth. He makes the point that God created us, particularly women, with a prime child birthing age in our twenties. As it turns out, the medium age of women getting married for the first time is going up and has reached twenty six year of age. Men aren't getting married until they're twenty nine. And then couples are taking a few years of "getting to know one another" and getting their careers established before starting their families. So they are missing the prime years for having children if they have any at all.

So, there is a lot on my mind tonight. I wonder what God has in store for our churches. I wonder what is in store for our families. I wonder what is in store for our country. If marriage ages continue to go up and children are delayed later and later, it only makes sense that the birth rate is probably going to drop. We don't need to over populate, but we also don't need to reduce the lives being born.

There is so much more to say, but I do not want to ramble. I leave with this question to ponder: Is the church teaching "early marriage" or suggesting that marriage be put off? If we're teaching that it should be put off, are we giving the tools needed to remain chaste until marriage? I'm afraid that we've stuck our heads in the sand for too long. Let's be honest and open with our youth and help them to understand that it is important to marry young and to not delay their families. And for those who don't find their mates until a bit later, lets help them with the tools and opportunities they need so that they can remain faithful to their future mates. Sure, kids are going to make mistakes. Hormones are going to drive them, and us, crazy for a bit. But, let's not loose our young to world and to Satan because we've been afraid to talk with them.

I pray this is understandable and provokes some thought in your mind. Please feel free to ask questions or even to comment. I would greatly appreciate it.