Final Essay: My Pastoral Theology of Marriage My pastoral theology of marriage is that it is a human covenant made between two people (man and woman). Marriage should be rooted in, and sustained through, the love of God, love of your spouse and commitment to your spouse. Covenants are how God related to humanity throughout the biblical history. God used covenants to prosper God’s people through the faith ancestors, judges, and kings throughout the Old Testament. Then, through God’s overwhelming love God established the New Covenant through the death and resurrection of Christ. It is this biblical, historical covenant that is the basis of two people becoming married. It is two people who are so dedicated and have such a deep love for one another …show more content…
Especially as I had a great childhood and always knew both of my parents loved and supported me. Their relationship taught me that sometimes two people are not meant to be together. Sometimes divorce is needed for the emotional, spiritual, and physical health of the married couple. Having divorced parents certainly quelled the concept of a fairy tale marriage for me. Nevertheless, I admit I am still a hopeless romantic and believe I will find “the one.” So I guess it didn’t quell it that much. Who knows, I may have found her already. Relationships with other people are difficult, whether it’s a friend, spouse, or family member. Relationships take a lot of work to keep running well, but it can be great and happy work. A properly functioning adult relationship, in my mind, is partnership among people who seek to equally support and care for one another and extend the love of God to one another. In my pastoral theology of marriage I plan to focus on the actual concept of marriage and premarital counseling. These are ideas that I think about a lot, and are factors affecting my future life. Nevertheless, as someone who has not been married, I have no …show more content…
Divorce is a reality and something that should be talked about in society and in the church. Sometimes people marry someone with whom it is unhealthy for them to stay together. My parents were meant to my parents, but they were not meant to married. It took me a long time to come to this realization. Sometimes people marry for the wrong reasons. Other times, one spouse horrendously violates the trust of the other and the marriage is destroyed through lack of trust. Other times one spouse simply gives up on the relationship and refuses to attempt to make it work, leaving their spouse with little choice but to move on regardless of how much they may care for their spouse. I hope and trust that the women I end up with is the women I am meant to spend the rest of my life with. By the grace of God the divorce rate in America is dropping. Brittany Wong, in her article The Truth About The Divorce Rate Is Surprisingly Optimistic, writes “About 70 percent of marriages that began in the 1990s reached their 15th anniversary, up from roughly 65 percent of those that began in the 1970s and 1980s… And couples who wed in the 2000s are divorcing at even lower rates.” This is due to the women’s rights movement and people getting married later in life. It is no surprise that if couples get married in their late twenties or early thirties their marriage is more likely to succeed. By that time both partners are
Within the first chapter of the book Kostenberger’s God, Marriage and Family identifies the cultural problems of our nation. In this chapter the author discusses how sexual immorality, homosexuality and sexual confusion are among the major threats of how our culture is now defining relationships. The author says that this is more than a problem of culture, he says that this is rooted in something more than that. I think he might be dramatic about the who issue. I do not necessarily think that the way we live our lives in threatened by sexual sin. I think our God is bigger than that. Kostenberger thinks that we must go back to the old roots of marriage in the bible to start healing from the pain that sexual sin has caused against our nation. He says that when a couple is struggling that they should do more than just work on their communication skills, they should work on the idea of becoming “one flesh”. I agree with this, I think that if two people are completely following Christ and they give their whole lives to God than they can not have an unhappy marriage.
Divorce is a word that everyone knows very well, no matter what the age. These days, everyone knows at least one person that has either been in a divorce or whose parents are divorced. Today, about 50% of all marriages end in divorce('No-Fault' Divorce, 2004). Between the time that half of those couples get married and divorced, many of them had children. By 2004, "one in four children lived in single-parent homes"('No-Fault' Divorce, 2004). After the divorce, not only are the adults hurting, but the children are also. Throughout the divorce, the parents are caught up in each other, money, possessions, and their own pain that without even realizing it, their children are hurting too. Adults are becoming more careless and think less about how compatible they are to their partners. Some couples have children shortly after the wedding before they adjust to each other. After their children are born, the real problems start to become more relevant. With new problems surfacing and raising children at the same time, it becomes very difficult and divorce sounds like an answer to the problems.
Boy meets girl. Girl and boy fall in love and get married. Girl and boy have children and life could not possibly get any better. Many years later: Boy and girl start to notice something different in their relationship, something wrong. They decide that their relationship is over, whether they’re both happy with that decision or not and they divorce. Boy and girl’s children see them divorce. Children process the divorce in different ways, and it stays with them for the rest of their lives. People who experience a divorce are affected by it, whether they want to be or not. More often than not, those effects are negative. Before any parents make a rash decision, and before any children put judgment on their parents for messing them up, let’s take a look at the thing people call DIVORCE and how it affects those involved.
...on of hardship, from adults to children, and therefore cannot be viewed as a morally neutral act” (Dafoe 1). “Until death do us part” is a strong phrase and is not to be taken lightly. Death of a marriage is inevitable when a couple cannot reconcile its differences. The end of the marriage affects the whole family, which eventually affects society. A person who chooses divorce will need to make this decision with these things in mind. For me, divorce was against my moral belief even though it was necessary to continue raising my children. They can grow up with peace and an understanding of what a marriage can be, and what it should not be.
First of all, America has the highest divorce rate among western nations. Divorce rate increased after every major war, and decreased during the Post-World War II economic boom. The divorce rate has more than doubled since 1940, when there were two divorces for every 1,000 persons. Now for the same number of people, there are over five divorces. Studies indicate that there is more divorce among persons with low incomes and limited education and those who marry at a very young age. Teenage marriages are much more likely to end in divorce than are all other marriages. And women who marry when they are over age 30 are the least likely to become divorced. There has been a decline in divorce in the number of couples who have children under 18. Almost 45 p...
Every year approximately 2.4 million marriages occur.Out of those,2.1 millionwill file for divorce in the United States. These marriage and divorce rates have significantly increased since the years past(Coltrane and Adams, 364).According to Schoen, in the 1950’s, 15 out of 1,000 marriages ended in divorce.In the 1970’s, the rates of divorcedoubled,increasing to 40 per 1,000 marriages. Currently, the rate of marriages resulting in divorce remains the same. Most marriages are ending within seven years ofthemarriage for multiple different reasons. Sociologists haveestablisheddivorce as a social problem from the rise in divorcerates due to the early year of marriages (2006).
When we think of marriage, the first thing that comes to mind is having a lasting relationship. Marriage is a commitment of two people to one another and to each other?s family, bonded by holy matrimony. When a couple plans to marry, they think of raising a family together, dedicating their life to each other. That?s the circle of life--our natural instinct to live and produce children and have those children demonstrate your own good morals. I have never been married; but I don?t understand why when two people get married and vow to be together for richer and poorer, better or worse, decide to just forget about that commitment. A marriage should be the most important decision a person makes in his or her life.
Throughout the last half of the century, our society has watched the divorce rate of married couples skyrocket to numbers previously not seen. Although their has been a slight decline in divorce rates, “half of first marriages still were expected to dissolve before death.” (Stacy, 15, 1991) Whatever happened to that meaningful exchange of words, “until death do us part,” uttered by the bride and groom to each other on their wedding day? What could have been the cause of such inflated divorce rates? Perhaps young married couples are not mature enough to be engaged in such a trremendous responsibility, or, maybe, the couples really do not know each other as well as they thought. Possibly, they have been blinded by infatuation rather than by true love, or, quite simply, the couples mistakenly have different relational expectations.
The Web. 12 Dec. 2013. Shiono, Patricia H., and Linda S. Quinn. " National Trends in Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage. "
In conclusion, the metaphor of marriage used throughout the Bible to illustrate the relationship between God and His people and the institution of human marriage. Marriage is a covenant and you must not break it because it is like breaking God’s covenant. One should love each other like Christ love us. God joined the two people together as one flesh therefore divorce is unacceptable.
What is Marriage? Marriage is when people are being united together as husband and wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by the law. Marriage hasn’t always been how it is now, where women have a say in family problems, and where woman have the right to choose whom they want to marry. Before during the ancient times, women had to marry those in their families, and could not marry those that were Marriage use to be all about doing what you needed to support your family, which meant you married someone who was able to give you what you needed. Marriage wasn’t because you loved someone, but it was always because people wanted to preserve power. Now in the marriage, people marry, because they love each other, and because they want to make an effort to spend the rest of their lives together.
In the New Testament, we are told that Jesus attended a wedding in Cana of Galilee and miraculously provided wine when their supplies were exhausted. The Apostle Paul also had a great deal to say about the covenant that God ordained between man and woman. Paul assumed that elders and deacons would be married and bare children. Paul also encouraged younger widows to marry and he claimed the right as an apostle to lead about a wife. Therefore, the Bible views marriage as the norm, and the single life as the exception. Marriage is viewed as holy, righteous, and good. So, as we approach I Corinthians chapter 7 and Ephesians chapter 5, we must do so in confident that marriage is a gift from God, and a blessing that many Christians gratefully receive and enjoy.
According to a survey by one research group, there are more “born again Christians” getting married than any other group. Nevertheless, 26% of those surveyed were “Evangelical Christians,” who indicated that their marriage had ended in divorce. It is unfortunate that today’s culture has “grown comfortable with divorce.” In America, divorce is commonly accepted as well as becoming “a natural part of life.” Moreover, most materials found today on divorce and remarriage are not based on Scripture, but “life experience and opinions.” Unfortunately, getting a divorce is definitely a modern-day tragedy. Nevertheless, as pointed out by many authors, “the concept of divorce is biblical.” Therefore, it is imperative to establish a solid view on divorce and remarriage. Therefore, a correct view is one that is grounded on the Bible, rather than personal opinion.
The sudden socioeconomic transformation of the last century has substantially affected the tradition of marriage in modern society. Therefore, several alternatives to marriage have become available and grown to be more popular than marriage for today’s couples due to its suitability to current conditions. Some of these alternative statuses to marriage are cohabitation, divorce, or simply continuing to be single and this claim is supported through the findings of a recent study. The percentage of adults who are married has notably decreased from 1960 to 2008 by twenty percent (Pew Research Center). These statistics will not improve any time soon as “the average age at which men and women first marry is now the highest ever recorded” (Pew Research Center). These statistics may seem that society has lost a valuable part of life and the significance of two partners becoming one. However, from another perspective, it is a positive change in society where one or both partners do not lose their individuality and are equal, and are more accepting of other relationship choices.
Every individual hopes that they would never be faced with the word, “DIVORCE". Divorce is the legal ending of a marriage caused by arguments between a man and a women 's point of view or simply because they just got tired of each other. Whatever the reason is a divorce can break families apart and can cause many physiological damages. A divorce can make a child 's life horrible. It can make you feel worthless or angry. A divorce can make a person change and lead to have sociological issues.