Threats to Marriage

Our newly called Prophet said in a 2014 commencement address, ““Male and female are created for what they can do and become, together. It takes a man and a woman to bring a child into the world. Mothers and fathers are not interchangeable. Men and women are distinct and complementary. Children deserve a chance to grow up with both a mom and a dad.”

In the fall of  2008, while living in Southern California, I had the privilege of joining with many like-minded people to be part of the Proposition 8 campaign to try and save traditional marriage.  I made phone calls encouraging people to vote, I put a sign in my yard trying to inspire people to vote for “prop 8”, and I stood all along the busy streets of Southern California holding signs to show that I stood for marriage being between a man and a woman.  There were many of my LDS faith doing the same, but there were also so many of different religions that believed the same way and wanted their voice to be heard.  See the chart below for the results of the efforts made by so many for this great cause on November 4, 2008. 

Election results

California Proposition 8
Overturned Case:Hollingsworth v Perry No. 12–144
Result	Votes	Percentage
Yes	7,001,084	52.24%
No	6,401,482	47.76%

Turnout: 79.4% of registered

 We felt we had truly participated in a miracle when the vote went in favor of saving traditional marriage!  It is so disappointing to me that 10 years later all the work we did and all the voices who spoke in California have been ignored.  The system we have in place of voicing our desires through the vote has been manipulated by the opposition so that it is now void.  Marriage is worth fighting for and we of the LDS faith and many other God-fearing religions will continue to teach and to speak out about the true nature of marriage and what it was designed to be.  Justice Roberts and all those who did not concur with the five justices who voted to make same-sex marriage legal nationally said, “Marriage did not come about as a result of a political movement, discovery, disease, war, religious doctrine, or any other moving force of world history—and certainly not as a result of a prehistoric decision to exclude gays and lesbians. It arose in the nature of things to meet a vital need: ensuring that children are conceived by a mother and father committed to raising them in the stable conditions of a lifelong relationship.”

Marriage Trends- Divorce 

I wanted my first post of my blog to have a really catchy and fun hook for readers.  I wanted followers to be excited about reading my thoughts and ideas that I am learning about in my Marriage class.  So I was quite disappointed when I logged into the reading materials to see that we would be diving right into divorce- on week two- of a marriage class.   I am going to try and keep this upbeat, and not focus on the disparaging statistics of the unlikelihood that a marriage will survive.  Marriage is hard and I don't think there is one couple out there that hasn't thought at one time or another about throwing in the towel.  We may feel we have been tricked into this institution.  As young adults we look at what appear to be happy marriages all around us and then when real life sets in after the honeymoon we might feel like we are missing something.  Everyone else is living in marital bliss, why aren't we?  This may be the point where doubts start creeping in as to if we made a mistake by choosing the one we did.   

President Hinckley said, "Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed... most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration."  He knew what so many of us are still learning and what I think many who eventually divorce never learn, that we marry imperfect people.  Our challenge in marriage, is to make the most of those imperfections.  Instead of giving up on marriage I think that struggling married couples should ponder the words of Elder Eyring:

   If all married couples kept this as their mantra during trying times, maybe some of the depressing figures about divorce wouldn't be so disparaging and we would see more marriages being successful.