Is Marriage Just a Piece of Paper?

Matthew 19:4-5
“And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?”

With the creation of Adam and Eve, God also created the marriage relationship and blessed it. God knows how we are made. He knows how we work. And He had all that in mind when He designed the marriage relationship. For this reason, one would expect that trying to fashion a family by simply living together would result in less happiness than when properly married.
    
Numerous studies have shown the results of couples living together without the benefit of marriage. One 1992 study, conducted by a group based at Rutgers University, showed that even cohabitors who eventually got married had a 46 percent greater chance of divorce than those who had begun in a proper marriage relationship. A more recent study by a Bowling Green University researcher measured and compared the depression scores between married couples and cohabitors. Married people had an average depression score of 13.3, while cohabitors showed a higher depression score of 17.2.
    
Cohabiting is even worse for the children. Thirty six percent of the children born to cohabitors who later married will see their parents divorce. Only one third of the children born to married people will see their parents divorce. It is clear that in His love for us, God designed marriage for our happiness and blessing.

Prayer:
We thank You, dear Father, for the gift of marriage. Bless and strengthen marriage among us. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Notes:
Mona Charen, “Before you decide on moving in,” Washington Times, March 26, 1999, Third Age News Service; “Marriage gets the nod for satisfaction,” Brainerd Daily Dispatch (Minn.), September 6, 1998. Photo: Courtesy of Jeff Belmonte. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.