Families

I've been thinking a bit this week about marriage, divorce and family break-ups. It's not a very delightful topic, and it wasn't by choice that my mind has gone here. On Sunday I was told of a young couple with three kids who have recently separated. On Tuesday I had a chat with a guy who finalized his divorce last month. It's been on my mind. It's an unfortunate reality in our society. Each instance is different, and I'm in no place to judge, having never been married. Still, I'd like to think I have some understanding of commitment, sacrifice, compromise, giving, receiving... And it saddens me to see families break up, with kids getting caught in the middle, because of one persons selfishness, or another persons failure to honor a commitment, or ....

One of the things that it has cause me to think about is my own experience. I've never been married, but my parents have. Only once though, to each other. There are 11 marriages represented by my parents and their siblings (my dad has 6 sisters, my mom 1 sister and 3 brothers). All of them honored the commitments they made to each other, and before God. My family is a statistical anomaly in a society where nearly half of marriages end in divorce.

In my grandfather's memoirs, he says this about my dad, his son-in-law:
“After I learned to know John, I had to admit though, that there are few men who would spend so much of their leisure time with their wife and children as John did.”
What a compliment! I wonder if this has something to do with a successful marriage?

I've been incredibly blessed to have parents like this, specifically a dad like mine.