Why is marriage so hard? (part 1)

WHY IS MARRIAGE SO HARD? (part 1)

Marriage today is under attack. The most basic unit in our society is faced with tremendous pressure under the best of circumstances, but today the biblical plan for marriage is clearly in the crosshairs of our culture.

Regardless of what popular culture says, the marriage between one man and one woman stands as God’s plan for families, now and for all time. Why does this formula struggle so much?  In the next few weeks we’ll share some of the most common issues that threaten all marriages. This week’s post has to do with the adjustments a person must make when blending two lives together.

When two people marry and join their lives together, God intends them to function as a single unit, not two separate entities. The problem with that scenario is that each person enters marriage with a unique background that often is in direct opposition to the background of the other person. What value does each person put on big things like money, family, religion, career, and a host of other possibilities? Major disagree-ments in any single area could lead to significant problems. Multiply that out by the number of issues a marriage will face and it is easy to see why struggles are frequent and often debilitating for the couple.

A good pre-marital course that takes a couple through these potential problem areas would force a couple to deal with the issues ahead of a marriage. However, once the couple is committed in marriage, they must now find a way to live with their differ-ences in a way that is manageable and honors God. That is where they learn that there is a dance or an art to marriage. How couples resolve the differences that divide them will ultimately reveal whether their relationship will grow sweeter or go sour.