Marriage is one of the most important bonds a person can ever make. There are certain things which make this bond thrive despite the ups and downs of life. Trusting your spouse is one of the most important factors.  As a Christian, your bond with Jesus is also of great importance – married or not!

So is it true that placing such an important bond in higher priority than the bond of marriage ends up weakening a marriage? Or does it improve the strength of your marriage?

Common Misconceptions

Many people hold the view that Christian couples divorce at the same rate as non-Christian couples. People hope to use this statement to undermine the faith in marriages. However, enough research has been done to suggest otherwise. Couples with an element of faith are less likely to divorce on the whole.

Research has shown that Catholic couples are 31{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} less likely to divorce than couples that aren’t religious. Protestant couples are 35{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} less likely to divorce, and Jewish couples have incredibly strong marriages – with a 97{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} less likelihood of divorce.

Having said this, the chance of divorce is increased when the couples are conservative Protestants, compared to being liberals or a non-religious couple.

Requirement of steadfastness

Further research outlines a few patterns about happy marriages.

• While only 7{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of struggling couples have said that ‘God is at the centre of our marriage’,
• 53{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of happy couples have said this statement.
• 30{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of struggling couples disagree with the statement ‘God is at the centre of our marriage.

This goes on to show that the likelihood of a better marriage is increased when the focus of each person isn’t their spouse, but rather the significance of their bond in the eyes of God.

It is also interesting that Protestants have a 35{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} less chance of divorcing, whereas another research shows that Protestants have a 20{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} more chance of divorcing.

This is because the latter Protestants are those who keep their Christianity mainly in the name rather than in their actions. Those who regularly go to church and are more ‘active’ Christians have a much happier married life on the whole.

This suggests that the stronger one’s relationship is with God, the stronger is the relation with their spouse – a positive correlation.

A Happy Marriage

Some people find it hard to believe that a ‘happy marriage’ is possible since spouses are always getting into heated arguments. The reality is that those heated arguments are mostly over nothing; they are the type of arguments you would look back at, and laugh about in future.

To avoid the arguments which damage marriages you need to make sure that the petty ones don’t escalate. That only happens when you realise that your relationship with your spouse is far more important than who misplaced the remote.

Marriage is certainly a very difficult instrument to play, and if you want to hit the right notes, you need help from a special being; help from God. Once you place God in the centre of your relationship, you will hit the right notes, and it will be worth it.