Men Marrying Late — Or Not At All
Actually, I was 31 when I was married – five years ago this coming September. I suppose that is not late according to th NY Times article quoted by Dr. Mohler.
In fact, I give credit to Dr. Mohler for my proposing to my wife when I did. Dr. Mohler was the commencement speaker when I graduated with my MDiv. from The Master’s Seminary (2001). He graciously agreed to speak to a group of Southern Baptist pastors the next morning and take a few questions. I don’t remember how it got started, but Dr. Mohler began to bag on “single pastors” – of which I was one and had been for about fourteen years at that point. He began his tirade about how a man could not be an effective shepherd as a single man. I didn’t take it so well. He even tried to quote Scripture in indicating that an overseer should be “the husband of one wife.” He did stop a little short in that conversation in demanding that pastors have children in order to be qualified. Yet, what was a single, presumably ineffective pastor, fresh with his MDiv. to do? Well, it was easy for me. That night, with fresh motivation (who can or should buck the wisdom of a man like Mohler), I proposed to the woman who is now my wife. Three months later we were married. Five years later – I’m still glad I waited until I was old.
I suppose I should say that I was already planning to propose to Kelly that evening. it was merely providential that Dr. Mohler went on his tirade. Years prior to this I had a similar conversation with the late W. A. Criswell. He exhorted me in no uncertain terms that I should just go get married. If only it were that simple.
Most interesting in the Times article is the connection between men not working or getting higher education degrees and their delay in marrying. Personally, I think this is the fruit of video games, but I don’t have a lot of research to back that up – its just a gut feeling. I think another study should be done to see how many men who are not going to college and not marrying are also fat. I’m sure that will add further conclusiveness to my contention that video games are a societal curse. Thus my random blog for the day.
Just for the record, I managed to acquire a higher education, marry fairly young, and remain somewhat slim, all while enjoying a healthy diet of video games. Mostly Goldeneye, Zelda, and later Perfect Dark – I wasn’t much into computer games, those guys have real problems.
Justin, you are a child prodegy. Do not set yourself up as an attainable example. How did you do it? It defies rational explanation. How did you graduate as a well-read, intellectually sharp, skinny video game junkie? Sounds like a good blog article – **hint, hint**