Marriage is a Laboratory

This is one post that I am not sure what I want to say.  We are currently going through the book of 1 Corinthians at church and in our small groups, and two weeks ago the study was over marriage as outlined in chapter seven.  During his sermon, our pastor made the comment that "marriage is a laboratory," and it got me to thinking about how that is true not only within the context of service (which is what the pastor was talking about) but in general.

Yahoo! recently published an article that my husband found "startling."  Titled, Four in 10 say marriage is becoming obsolete, the article aims to show how the definition of family has evolved over the last five decades and how this evolution has been triggered by a large number of divorced or unwed adults with children.  The article states,

About 29 percent of children under 18
now live with a parent or parents who are unwed
or no longer married, a fivefold increase from 1960,
according to the Pew report being released Thursday.
Broken down further, about 15 percent have parents who are divorced or separated
and 14 percent who were never married.
Within those two groups, a sizable chunk — 6 percent —

have parents who are live-in couples who opted to raise kids together without getting married.

I agree with my husband, this is startling!  From a Biblical viewpoint, it is clear that God has a clear plan and design for marriage and family.  From a sociological viewpoint, two-parent families are the ideal.  This article, however, suggests that adults are no longer striving toward the ideal situation and are settling with whatever life throws at them.  This, I believe, is largely due to the fact that as a culture we (1) do not want anyone telling us how to live our life (i.e. the Bible) and (2) too many married adults have indeed shown that if marriage is a laboratory, they are mad scientists.

Because our society is walking farther and farther away from God's truth, design and purpose for marriage, it is no wonder that we are seeing an increase in the aforementioned statistics.  As a wife, I pray I can learn to be submissive and serve my husband; as a mother, to be an example and light to my children.  Marriage is a blessing and serves to make us more holy if we allow it.  It is very difficult for our generation to serve others especially if it means sacrificing something!  Marriage will not work if both parties are not willing to completely submit themselves to their partner, lovingly serving and meeting their needs.  It is definitely hard work, but the rewards are tremendous.

In the aftermath of adding our fourth child, I am trying to remember that my husband comes before my children.  At the end of a long day, he deserves my heart and attention, and getting to bed 30 minutes later won't kill me!  Take time this Thanksgiving week to remember why you choose your spouse in the first place.  Choose one area of your life that you are not currently giving 100% of yourself, and start turning that over to Christ for transformation.