"Marry Young." Who said that? Not a Christian, obviously (barring Debbie Maken of course)
Captain Sensible writes: Astounding!
Anyone ever heard a church leader urging singles to get married young? (Or even just to get married at all, frankly?)
Thought not.
Yet the Bible refers to "the wife of your youth" five times, I believe. (You'd have thought once would be enough, but FIVE times sounds like God is really trying to tell us something!)
But fear not. Biblical wisdom for singles may not be found in our churches these days, but it does appear in the secular press.
Excellent article here in The Times by Mary Kenny, urging singles to do just that: "Marry young". I don't exactly agree with the provocative headline "matrimony is wasted on the old", but as I believe Debbie Maken has written either in her book (Getting Serious About Getting Married: Rethinking the Gift of Singleness) or on her blog, youth is the best season to enjoy the full benefits and privileges of marriage.
So, Biblical wisdom can be found by reading Debbie Maken or the secular press, but not in our churches or by any other Christian writer.
Shame, isn't it?
(PS: Note the world doesn't make-up imaginary platitudes for protracted singleness such as "waiting on the Lord", "trusting in God", seeking "God's best" or the blessings of "the gift of singleness". They acknowledge that it's a cultural problem. Tut tut, church, tut tut! We need to wake up and smell the roses that are now well past their bloom and are slowly dying a dry, barren death -- and quit scolding them for not being "content" about it!)
"If it is the received opinion that Prince William and Kate Middleton were too young to be wed, then I would suggest that the received opinion is in error. Indeed, if it is the young Prince’s own view that 24 is too young to be married, then I would suggest this may be a mistake. The mid-twenties are a perfect time for a young couple to be married. Indeed, at 25, a woman is already past the peak of her biological fertility, which occurs at the age of 23.
"It has become the custom among the middle classes not to enter into matrimony until they reach their late twenties or early to middle thirties. In working-class milieux, it has become the custom not to marry at all, but to cohabit without benefit of state or clergy, although this is usually because of the reluctance of the male to 'commit', rather than the female’s refusal of a stable contract. These social trends are among the reasons why marriage itself is decreasing.
"Having failed to take the plunge in the salad days of their twenties, the thirtysomethings grow ever more picky and choosy, and the young women ever more concerned about their fertility choices receding: while the available pool of suitable males shrinks ever smaller.
"Marriage is a relationship that requires the paradoxical virtues of both fortitude and flexibility, or courage and tolerance, and these characteristics are best found in the young. The young are brave; they have valour; they are ready to plunge into the whirlpool and take the risk. And surely the marriage of true minds and one flesh has its most radiant flowering in the full sunshine of youth’s idealism — not of maturity’s calculation?"
Read the full article here.
Anyone ever heard a church leader urging singles to get married young? (Or even just to get married at all, frankly?)
Thought not.
Yet the Bible refers to "the wife of your youth" five times, I believe. (You'd have thought once would be enough, but FIVE times sounds like God is really trying to tell us something!)
But fear not. Biblical wisdom for singles may not be found in our churches these days, but it does appear in the secular press.
Excellent article here in The Times by Mary Kenny, urging singles to do just that: "Marry young". I don't exactly agree with the provocative headline "matrimony is wasted on the old", but as I believe Debbie Maken has written either in her book (Getting Serious About Getting Married: Rethinking the Gift of Singleness) or on her blog, youth is the best season to enjoy the full benefits and privileges of marriage.
So, Biblical wisdom can be found by reading Debbie Maken or the secular press, but not in our churches or by any other Christian writer.
Shame, isn't it?
(PS: Note the world doesn't make-up imaginary platitudes for protracted singleness such as "waiting on the Lord", "trusting in God", seeking "God's best" or the blessings of "the gift of singleness". They acknowledge that it's a cultural problem. Tut tut, church, tut tut! We need to wake up and smell the roses that are now well past their bloom and are slowly dying a dry, barren death -- and quit scolding them for not being "content" about it!)
"If it is the received opinion that Prince William and Kate Middleton were too young to be wed, then I would suggest that the received opinion is in error. Indeed, if it is the young Prince’s own view that 24 is too young to be married, then I would suggest this may be a mistake. The mid-twenties are a perfect time for a young couple to be married. Indeed, at 25, a woman is already past the peak of her biological fertility, which occurs at the age of 23.
"It has become the custom among the middle classes not to enter into matrimony until they reach their late twenties or early to middle thirties. In working-class milieux, it has become the custom not to marry at all, but to cohabit without benefit of state or clergy, although this is usually because of the reluctance of the male to 'commit', rather than the female’s refusal of a stable contract. These social trends are among the reasons why marriage itself is decreasing.
"Having failed to take the plunge in the salad days of their twenties, the thirtysomethings grow ever more picky and choosy, and the young women ever more concerned about their fertility choices receding: while the available pool of suitable males shrinks ever smaller.
"Marriage is a relationship that requires the paradoxical virtues of both fortitude and flexibility, or courage and tolerance, and these characteristics are best found in the young. The young are brave; they have valour; they are ready to plunge into the whirlpool and take the risk. And surely the marriage of true minds and one flesh has its most radiant flowering in the full sunshine of youth’s idealism — not of maturity’s calculation?"
Read the full article here.
posted by Captain Sensible at 8:51 PM
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