Upside Down... ~ The Role of Divorce In The Breakdown of The Home ~

   The previous article in this series focused on the breakdown of the home in our nation.  Specifically, it delved into the impact of couples living together outside of marriage and the consequent effect of weakening our homes and culture.  As noted, the home is the basic unit of society, producing and training the next generation of adults who will shape our society and culture.  Sadly, our homes are crumbling before our eyes.  The basic unity of society is rapidly being turned upside down…

   Another huge factor contributing to the breakdown of the home in our country is a casual and careless attitude toward divorce.  The marriage vows commonly include the phrase “until death do us part,” or “for as long as we both shall live,” or some equivalent.  But, these days, couples seem to hold little commitment to the meaning behind that sentiment.
   Marriage is work!  It’s an everyday job, but the benefits are tremendous.  By God’s design, marriage is based on love.  It is a response to an inherent need for unique companionship that can only be fulfilled to the ultimate degree in the marriage bond.  It is a relationship that brings a special fulfillment to the lives of both marriage partners.  But a married couple have to count their marriage precious and give their relationship proper attention on a consistent basis in order for it to become all that it can be.  It they will do that they will enjoy growing old together, deeply in love with their best friend.
   With such a model, why are there so many divorces in our nation?  How many are there?  Statistically, there is approximately one divorce for every two marriages that are joined.  A great many individuals marry and divorce multiple times during their lives.  Our culture has developed a careless, rather flippant attitude toward divorce.  Instead of being committed to do whatever it takes to work out problems that might exist in the relationship, couples commonly give up and bail on their marriage.  The consequences on the home are monumental.
   Divorce leads to children being raised in a broken, single-parent home which is, by its very nature, dysfunctional.  Children then grow up without the example of a strong, nuclear family in a stable home.  Young boys grow up not learning from their Dad what a man is supposed to be.  Young girls grow up not learning what they should expect in a husband.  It’s a similar scenario, just in reverse order, when the mother is the missing parent.  Our society becomes weakened, and our culture further disintegrates.
   God “hates divorce,” (Mal. 2:16).  Jesus declared, “…what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matt. 19:6).  He stated further, “…whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery;” (Matt. 19:9).  He made a similar pronouncement in Matt. 5:32.
   In God’s eyes there is only one reason for divorce.  When a married person commits adultery, the innocent spouse has a godly right to divorce the guilty spouse and remarry.  There are no other scriptural grounds for divorce, none!  God’s design is one man and one woman married to each other for life.
   Our society has ignored God’s law on marriage and divorce, and our culture is suffering immeasurably as a result.  Our careless attitude toward divorce has contributed monumentally to the breakdown of the home in our nation.  It is as Hosea wrote, “They have sown the wind, and reap the whirlwind. (Hos. 8:7).  We have sown the wind, and we are in the process of reaping the whirlwind.  We’ve truly turned God’s design for marriage upside down…