Daughters of Divorce

By Aimee Lynch As college-age women find their seats, I consider their faces. Outwardly, we look different. We come from different years in school, and have different majors and varying personalities. All strangers until we began sharing stories about our common bond:  we are all daughters of divorce. As a child of divorce myself, and […]

A Lenten Challenge to Pastors to Cut the Divorce Rate

By Mike McManus After hearing a Lenten sermon on the need to repent from sins and make a new commitment to amend our lives, I asked my pastor to consider calling upon area churches this Lent to create a Community Marriage Covenant.  Scripture is clear: “`I hate divorce,’ says the Lord God of Israel.”   We have plenty […]

The First Monday In January

 By David Schel No sooner had the sun set on the busiest month of the year for retailers, when the most active season for divorce lawyers had its kickoff the first Monday in January on what has sadly become known as Divorce Monday. It commences the biggest time of the year for divorce filings. Many […]

Giving Hope to a Relationship Third-World Country

By Sage Erickson Picture a third world country: desperate poverty, a daily struggle to survive, widespread suffering, minimal sanitation, and diminished economic opportunities. Now picture the United States. Although the United States has long been known as a first-world country politically and economically, has it become a third world country when it comes to romantic […]

Shoring Up Stepfamilies

By Mike McManus Perhaps half of all marriages involve one partner who was previously married. If children are involved, 70% of stepfamilies will divorce, putting everyone through another trauma. However, four of five of these marriages can be saved. Why do so many of these marriages fail? “Putting together or integrating a stepfamily is one […]

Move Over First Families: Stepfamilies Are the New Game in Town

By Beverly Willett   A few days ago, Honey Maid, the maker of a wide variety of well-known graham cracker products including the honey-flavored Teddy Grahams I once served my own children, unleashed the second installment in its “This is Wholesome” campaign.[1] The campaign, which is accompanied by two videos, celebrates stepfamilies, and was scheduled to coincide […]

Note to Millennials — It’s Not All About You

By Chris Gersten “Isn’t testing a marriage, like we test a username, simply-well, logical” journalist Jessica Bennett asks in a recent article for Time entitled “The Beta Marriage: How Millennials Approach ‘I Do.’” For Bennett, the answer to this question seems obvious:  If the institution of marriage is in trouble in our country, let’s take […]

Marry First

By Julie Baumgardner Remember the rhyme, “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage”? Not so anymore. Over the past decade there has been a shift in the sequence of marriage and having babies. New research indicates 57 percent of mothers between the age of 26 and 31 are unmarried when […]

Why Not Conscious Re-coupling?

I find it sad when any couple splits, especially couples with children.  I feel the same way about Gwyneth Paltrow and her soon-to-be ex-husband. When there’s some sort of abuse, it’s equally sad, but it’s also understandable when a spouse calls it quits.  That’s not the case here.  And I’m more than a bit annoyed […]

America’s Dismantling of Marriage

Earlier this month, columnist Cynthia Allen reflected on America’s on-going debate about marriage and the historical connection between marriage and economic outcomes, especially for children.  “Marriage is not a silver bullet,” she said, but she also pointed out the failure of decades-long policies in our war on poverty, suggesting that there might be something to […]