"If you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything..."

A couple of nights ago I had some repairmen at my house to fix yet another thing on the foreclosure home I just bought. They were brothers in their late 30's, Hispanic, very knowledgeable and very nice. Since DD was home, and they had some relatives at her school, the talk turned to children and then marriage. Both brothers were explaining that they did not feel the need to ever marry. They said it's just a piece of paper and didn't see the reason. One of them was going through a divorce, and mentioned the only reason he had married his girlfriend was so she could get on his insurance when she got pregnant. Most people under 40 around here (and again, it's a conservative area) feel the same way. And I mentioned that they were Hispanic for a reason, because when I was growing up (central Texas) the Hispanics my age are usually Catholic and very pro-marriage.

Sigh.

It's another failure of my generation in not instilling enough values in our children. And I guess if someone is not religious in a faith such as Christianity or Judaism, then I can understand. Because they would not have that belief if they didn't follow God's commands in the Bible.

Marriage was designed to be a covenant (agreement) between a man and a woman to be faithful to one another. Physically faithful, as in sex. It is why the vows have always mentioned faithfulness. The first marriage was Adam and Eve. Genesis 2 says, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they become one flesh," (and they didn't even HAVE parents.) In Matthew, Jesus quotes this verse and says, "Haven't you read, that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh? Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." In Hebrews it says, "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral." Even the first miracle Jesus performed was turning the water into wine at a wedding.

The entire world is set up on procreating and genealogy through the marriage of a man and a woman. Marriage has become passe, uncool, and meaningless in our current day. Young people just don't see the point, especially if they look up to Hollywood types or pop musicians, who only seem to marry to have a spectacle wedding like Kim Kardashian. They are couples like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie who admit that they don't believe in God or marriage. Consequently half the babies born in America these days are to unwed parents, and often those don't even have a committment to one another. This has caused a breakdown in the family, when there is no stability of a mother and father. This country has been erasing the Judeo-Christian ethic, and left us with what we are dealing with now. Lots of young people with no anchors, tossing and turning with each wave in the sea.

A sea that's getting rougher and rougher...