marriage

Unless you've been living under a rock the past couple of days, you have probably heard about the latest Hollywood scandal.  After only 72 days of marriage, Kim Kardashian is filing for divorce. Ugh.

I'm pretty much disgusted (along with everyone else), and I'm so perturbed by this that despite my love of reality tv I just might have to boycott anything Kardashian from here on out.

I think one of the hosts of The Chew made a really great point today that I hadn't even considered. There are people in this country fighting for the right to get married, and if nothing else, this is a slap in the face to them.

Honestly, though, it's a slap in the face to anyone who actually believes in the sanctity of marriage. It's a slap in the face to me.

I got married young... very young for today's standards... at only 22-years-old. Fresh out of college. Young, stupid, and in love. I imagine that there are many who didn't think our marriage would survive, but here we are. 7 years have gone by, and we're still kicking. It has not been easy. There have been struggles. Deployments. Misunderstandings. Disagreements. Communication problems. The list goes on. But we love each other, and we're married. When the going gets tough, we don't simply sigh with resignation and throw up our hands, oh well - we tried. No. We work on it. Fix it. Talk it out. Fight it out. Whatever we need to do. Most importantly, we stay married. Because we believe in marriage and in what we have together.

I have friends who quiz me on a regular basis about how I knew Mike was the right one - the one I wanted to marry. These same friends are afraid to get married because they don't want to get divorced. In some ways, I think that's so strange, but really, I get it. Everywhere you turn you see marriages that don't make it. The military has its own startling divorce statistics. Gosh. Mike just told me that something like 80% of the marines stationed here on Parris Island get divorced. I mean it's a tough duty station that requires a lot of time from its marines, but holy crap!

It's just all very upsetting.... that something so incredible can be treated with such irreverance. 72 days! And to think I actually cried when I watched that wedding special - a waste of my precious time and energy.

I do believe that the ability to cultivate a healthy marriage has everything to do with how marriage has been modeled to you. We both are very lucky to have parents who believe in marriage and who truly love each other through thick and thin. I pray that we can model the positive side of marriage for our kids so that they don't end up being another devastating statistic.

9/4/2004