How not to get a divorce

There are all kinds of useful tips you’ll get when you (and the other 2.77M in the US) get married, some of my favorite have to do with the fact that “she’s always right…”

We started a new Sunday School class at church, and we are going through “Love and Respect.” This is a great book taken from the principle found in various places in the Bible, and succinctly by the Apostle Paul:

…let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

-Eph 5:33

This is true as a biblical command, but is also proven correct through research practical research (as brought out by Dr. Eggrich).

I firmly believe, “do this” or “tweak that” fixes to your marriage will not ultimately be effective unless you put Jesus at the center of your lives. The true purpose of marriage is communion with God, not to make you happy.

It is, however, interesting to see the things that have been present in those individuals who have a lower rate of divorce. Here are some of the things that are more true of people who do not get divorced than those who do… In other words, how to not get divorced  (from a purely statistical perspective)

• In the happiest marriages, the wife is thinner and better looking than their husband – bake pies
• The happiest couples focus on the positive – the “silver lining,” find the good in every situation
• The more willing a husband is to do house work, the more attractive his wife will find him
• People who smile in childhood photographs are less likely to get a divorce
• Do not win an Oscar for “Best Actress” – it’s called the “Oscar Curse”
• Don’t watch “chick flicks” – just watching a “romantic comedy” causes relationship satisfaction to drop
• Drinking alcohol increases your chance of divorce
• When you have a close friend or couple who splits up, your chance of divorce goes up by 75%

So why get married? The benefits are well worth it.

• There are over 1,000 legal benefits in the United States
• Married people make more money
• They are healthier physically
• They are healthier emotionally
• They produce happier, more stable, and more successful kids
• They have more “you know what” than single people supposedly “sowing their wild oats”
• Married people live longer

These are taken from a “TED Talk” that I watched by Jenna McCarthy (not a believer, as far as I can tell)