Shifting Worldviews

by | Jul 3, 2007 | Marriage and Family

What is the key to a good marriage? I would love to hear your answers. A recent study examines a number of shifting ideas among Americans not only as to what makes a marriage good, but what role do children play in the making of happy matrimony. Here’s the overview: The Pew Research Center survey on marriage and parenting found that children had fallen to eighth out of nine on a list of factors that people associate with successful marriages well behind “sharing household chores,” “good housing,” “adequate income,” a “happy sexual relationship” and “faithfulness.” Seventeen years ago, children ranked third in importance among the items listed in the most recent study. Sixty-two percent of the respondents to the survey felt that “chore-sharing” was very important for a happy marriage. Perhaps this is another telling indicator of the high divorce rate. When chore-sharing is what you find fulfilling, your relationship is little more than a buddy-system, not a marriage. Where the Creation account reminds the first couple that their first commandment was to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:26ff), the current approach of the modern couple appears to be: be fair, balanced and equitable in the distribution and expectation of who will mow the yard and clean the dishes. Ah, the elements of marital bliss. One family-policy expert gave her take on why child-rearing is less important today: “The popular culture is increasingly oriented to fulfilling the X-rated fantasies and desires of adults,” she wrote in a recent report. “Child-rearing values sacrifice, stability, dependability, maturity seem stale and musty by comparison.” A sociologist gave...