Statistics Need A Second Look

I’m not certain why the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics is looking at American marriages, but the headlines state:

CDC: Only half of first marriages last 20 years

The report also asks a very good question among it’s statistics:  “So, did the new report shed any light on what it takes to stay married? Maybe - depending on how you interpret the results.”

Interpreting the results needs to take into consideration one person I know who had three marriages that did not last ten years total. I also know several people whose spouses died before their twentieth anniversary, divorce was not involved. There’s nothing in the article to indicate if such variances were considered.

So, give a second, very close look to what happened to half of the marriages in those twenty years.  Then, look at the other half.

Saturday afternoon we need to be in two places.  One at our home church where a couple will renew their vows, knowing they will never be able to make another sixty years!  The other with Beloved Husband’s next youngest brother and his wife, celebrating fifty years.

BH’s second youngest brother missed his by almost a year when the love of his life passed away last year. They reached that point they promised each other, “til death us do part.”

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:24 KJV)

That did not change for thousands of years, repeated just two thousand ago and valid today:

The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 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? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (Matthew 19:3-6 KJV)

Yes, it’s biblical, and that’s not politically correct today. But it worked – for a number of couples I know.

How about your friends, too?