Marrying Young
Can age predict marriage longevity?
Today, we have author Lindsey Bell who is sharing a universal topic. Please enjoy her post.
My husband, Keith, and I met in high school and dated for four years before we got married. I remind him often that I drove us to our first date since he wasn’t old enough to drive. We also married young. He was 19, and I had just turned 20. We weren’t even old enough to rent a car on our honeymoon!
Some might say we were too young to tie the knot. In fact, right before our wedding day, someone approached me with these words: “So many people who marry young get divorced within the first five years. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
I’m still not entirely sure why the person felt the need to say something like this to me days before our wedding. Regardless, I’m happy to share that we are still happily married—17 years and counting.
Getting married young doesn’t guarantee a divorce. Neither does getting married older guarantee a couple won’t divorce.
What matters is how the couple works through challenges.
- Do they grow together instead of allowing the world to pull them apart?
- Do they listen (really listen) and trust that the other person has their best interests in mind, even when it might not feel that way?
- Do both partners want the best for the other person?
If a couple has these things, I’ve learned that no matter how young or old they are, they can have a healthy marriage.
Life hasn’t turned out exactly as my husband and I imagined in our early years. Back then, I had no idea we would battle secondary infertility. And I was clueless what the loss of four babies would do to my heart, or what the challenges of grief would bring to our marriage. When the person told me before our wedding that he hoped I knew what I was doing marrying so young, I can say for sure, now, that I really didn’t know what I was doing. But I did know my husband had a good heart. I knew he was a good, faithful man. And I knew that no matter what challenges we faced, we would face them together.
Marrying Young is not a predictor of marriage longevity
Deb Allard: I’ve known many many people who have married young. Brian was twenty and I was still nineteen. Many of my friends married young as well. I agree with Lindsey Bell wholeheartedly– it isn’t age that predicts marriage longevity, rather, it’s the love we have that enables us to face challenges together. Thank you Lindsey for sharing from your heart.
Bio:
Lindsey Bell is the author of Unbeaten and Searching for Sanity. She’s passionate about her two boys, her husband Keith, books of all kinds, and delicious dark chocolate. Her desire is to inspire and encourage other believers through honest dialogue about faith, family, and learning to love the life she’s been given. As a woman who has lost four babies to miscarriage, Lindsey loves helping others find God in the midst of heartache. Find Lindsey online atwww.lindseymbell.com.
About Unbeaten:
Difficult times often leave Christians searching the Bible for answers to the most difficult questions — Does God hear me when I pray? Why isn’t He doing anything? Does He even care? In Unbeaten, author Lindsey Bell shares the stories of biblical figures who went through tough times. Through this 10-week Bible study and devotional, she reminds readers that while life brings trials, faith brings victory.
A Day to Rejoice by Deb Allard
This Sunday has been set aside to remember the most wonderful day of the year–the day that Jesus rose from the grave.
April 17th is Resurrection Day: A day of expectation and newness of life; a day to remember the most profound miracle the world has ever seen, and a day to rejoice. A man who claimed He was God, who endured torture for His beliefs died on a Friday and rose to life on Sunday. The enormous stone sealing His tomb had been rolled away despite Roman soldiers guarding the entrance, and Jesus’s burial cloths lay in the empty tomb, indicating he was no longer there. Then as proof of His resurrection, Jesus appeared to hundreds of people. The doubting apostle Thomas touched the holes in his hands.
Mary Magdelene was the first to see him, then Mary, the mother of James, and also Salome, and Joanna. Then He appeared to Peter, his disciple. Later, he appeared to all of the disciples as well as to five hundred others. Their eyewitness accounts proved that Jesus, who had died on the cross, had returned to life. And to solidify the eyewitness claims beyond a shadow of a doubt, they refused to deny that they had seen Him again–they maintained their testimonies even while martyred for their beliefs. Would you die for a lie? Five hundred people didn’t waver from the truth. They knew what they had seen.
But why did Jesus endure torture and death on the cross?
He died on the cross to cleanse us of our sins when we believe in Him and ask for forgiveness, and he also gives us eternal life. Because of Jesus’s resurrection, we are guaranteed heaven if we accept Him as Savior and Lord. Imagine the most wonderful utopia where beauty and fullness of life are everywhere. Foods, flowers, colors, and scents exist that we’ve never imagined. No sickness, sadness, strife, or death. A place of peace, security, and joy forever. And while we’re still on earth, He answers our prayers and helps us whenever we pray.
If you’re interested in how to accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord, please fill out the contact form on the first page of this website, and I’ll get back with you.
