 | LinksMore Marriage LinksPosted Sunday, October 7th, 2007 and visited 325 times, 2 so far today by MInTheGap |
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So the kids are on the mend, and that means that I’ll be able to spend more time keeping everything up and running (I know, a sigh of relief everywhere!)
However, I have been busy. I updated MInTheGap to WordPress 2.3, gave it a new theme, and have been doing short posts over there. This blog should be getting some TLC as far as WordPress 2.3 and I actually have some neat ideas for how to organize it more like a magazine with sections where bloggers can have specialities– but more on that later….
It’s that time again– time to look at what’s going on in the marriage world and get some links.
What an interesting post. Amy, the writer of this post, admonishes us that it is the older Christian women’s job to admonish the younger (specifically the bride-to-be) on the details of sex– it’s what she believes is left out of bridal showers:
The more we talk openly about sex in its biblical context, and in a discreet manner, the more comfortable it will become and the more young women will think of it in a proper light.
Some people might also object to single, unengaged women being present during sex talks. But at an all-female bridal shower, with Christian women present, I submit that this is an excellent forum for young girls to develop a healthy and correct attitude towards human sexuality as God intended it. If girls are old enough to go to a shower, they are old enough to hear about sex. As one friend put it, we live in an age where 11-year-old girls get pregnant.
The bottom line is this: If older, wiser Christian women don’t inform a young woman’s views on sexuality, the world is ready and anxious to do it for them.
Our modern culture has given us the concept of the childless marriage– a marriage in which the couple intentionally does not have children. Jess asks her readers what they think of this, and in this follow-up post she answers what she thinks.
[T]o be deliberately childless simply for reasons of our own ease, desire, or plans, I believe, is simply NOT an option for a Christian marriage.
You’ll have to read the whole thing to get the entire flavor.
Crossword Puzzle Solved With a Hitch
Another neat way to propose:
Aric Egmont and Jennie Bass were working on a puzzle titled “Popping the question” in the latest issue of The Boston Globe Sunday magazine. Bass spotted her sister’s name and her best friend’s name, but initially thought it was just a coincidence.
Then they got to 111 across: “Generic proposal” (Jen + Aric generic). The answer: “Will you marry me?”
“We get to the `Will you marry me?’ clue, and I said, `Will you marry me, Jenny?’ I got up, got the ring, and got down on one knee and she screamed, and hugged me. It took her a minute to say yes,” Egmont told the Globe.
U.S. Divorce Rate Lowest Since 1970
Whether this is because of the increase in couples living together, or people staying faithrul to each other, the rate of divorce is at its lowest point since 1970. However, there is cause for concern if this is because of the increase in cohabitation:
“Cohabitation is very fragile, and when unmarried parents split, for the child it might as well be a divorce,” Fagan said. “Among those who are marrying there’s increased stability, but overall the children of the nation are getting a rawer and rawer deal from their parents.”
Without a doubt, it is better for children that parents stay together– whether the marriage is rocky or not.
One in Three Women is Still Single at Age of 35
This coincides with the last link– women are choosing to remain unmarried at a higher rate than ever before.
The downward trend corresponds with an increase in women following careers, the rising cost of buying a home and the growing acceptance of couples simply living together.
The cost of having a family also seems to have had an effect, as parents struggle to afford childcare and a mortgage.
Analysts believe the introduction of tax credits to the benefit system since 1999 has dissuaded many from marrying, as they favour single mothers.
Figures show a couple with children must earn £50,000 a year between them before they are better off than if they lived apart.
I put the emphasis on both these things and the increase in sexual permissiveness– if there doesn’t have to be a covenant between a man and a woman to have intimate relations, then there are fewer incentives for them to marry.
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October 11th, 2007 at 8:18 am Subscribed to Comments
I, too, found Amy’s post about the wedding shower VERY interesting. The lack of discussion among married Christians about intimacy still astounds me. That’s why, frankly, I bring it up so much on my blog. Because it’s so shied away from in general that people end up getting their information from the world. Shame on us as Christians if we fail to present a biblical, Christ-honoring, glorious picture of the gift God has given us in marital intimacy!
~Jess @ Making Home
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:36 pm
I’ve been thinking about this– and it will probably be the topic of an upcoming post– but I believe that there was a time where it wasn’t polite to talk about sex so openly– and only recently. This is why I think that Christians tend to be more shy about it– because they are usually morally ahead of the world at least to some degree.
Tactics have to change in a world where children are exposed to sex while still in diapers, and yet I also have a yearning that it could be as it once was.