I don’t even know if I should ask that question.  It’s a hard question.  I was thinking about my closest friends this week.  There are about 12 of us couples who live in the Hamilton area.  All newly married.  All happy.  For the moment. But if the stats prove true, more than half of us will end our commitments prematurely.

I look around and (even though maybe I shouldn’t) ask, “who will get divorced first?”  Will it be an affair?  A mutual thing?  Will he do it or will she do it?  Will it be a series of ups and downs?  One massive fight?  Will it make
all the friends choose sides?  Will one of the dudes move in with us?  Will they both move back home to their parents?  What about church?  Friend functions?

One of my cousins…every single woman in her wedding party is now separated.  I’ve seen the mess it causes in children, having watched the slow divorce of a young couple in a church I once attended.

Not only do we need to avoid divorce, we need to steer a wide path away from bad marriages.  It’s not enough to just be ’safe’.  We need to have awesome marriages.  And I think this is a group effort.  Here are three very important keys to ’staying happily put’!

Relationship with God.  Stop fooling yourself.  A marriage without Jesus is like a PB&J without bread…there’s nothing to hold it together.  Proverbs 13 “A God-loyal life keeps you on track….sin dumps the wicked in the ditch.” Don’t get pitched- get right with God.

Community. It’s alot harder to let your marriage fall apart when you’re constantly surrounded by other couples trying to pursue God.  Someone is bound to notice.  Someone will call you to account.  I’m grateful for each the friends I have with the Boldness And Loving Leadership to ask how things are REALLY going.  Proverbs 13: 20 “Become wise by walking with the wise; hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces”. You get like the people by which you intentionally surround yourself.

A willingness to get right. I hang around with certain couples and see certain interactions and think ‘boy, I sure hope that doesn’t get worse.‘  I’m sure others think the same of me!  “If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself;
  but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding.” God had no use for a fool, and neither does this earth- expect when an example is needed to be made.  Only a headcase refuses to learn and grow from others.  Get there.

Get right with God.  Get in community.  Get right with people.  Don’t become a stat.  Don’t become a first.

And if you must be the first, be the first community to be jam-pack-filled with God-centred, passionate, I-love-you-so-much-I-want-to-scream marriages.

Any other ideas on how we can be divorce-free communities?  And more importantly- how do we become communities full of godly, worship-filled relationships?

• Your wedding vows…
• The Closest Thing to a Divorce-Free Guarantee
• More than KD and Hot Dogs
• I need the cure
• Careful- Your Love is Showing